


A Catfish Christmas

by Killmongersmistress (teakturn)



Series: A Catfish Christmas [1]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: 25 Days of Christmas Prompt Challenge, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Awesome Shuri (Marvel), Christmas Decorations, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Special, Comfort Food, Crafts, Domestic Fluff, Erik Killmonger Feels, Erik Killmonger Grows up in Wakanda, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Feeding Kink, Fluff and Humor, Food Porn, Los Angeles, Modern Royalty, New Year's Eve, No Incest, Parent Ramonda (Marvel), Sarcasm, Smitten Erik Killmonger, Wakandan Outreach Center
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 09:59:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 55,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17486036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teakturn/pseuds/Killmongersmistress
Summary: To avoid an arranged marriage, Erik is willing to pay Fallon to pretend to be his girlfriend for two weeks. Should be easy right?





	1. Chapter 1

Fallon King loved Christmas. She loved the way it changed the shopping experience into something magical. She loved that she could finally wear layers because in California it rarely got cold. If you asked her she’d tell you her body was made for the warm colors and bulky fabrics that defined winter wear. She was on the shorter side at 5’6 and her petite figure wouldn’t get her featured in any music videos. Yet, she was proud to say that despite her love of holiday foods (don’t even get her started on stuffing and sweet yams) her ass was high and perky and her legs looked sick in a pair of heels.

Her love of Christmas was what drove her to show up to work two hours early, on a Monday no less, to hang up decorations around the office. Working at the Wakandan Outreach Center in the Events Department was an honor Fallon would never take for granted. When the Center first opened she was fresh out of money after her last job fell through. She’d resigned herself to working retail or grinding her way through a food service job until she figured out something better.

Little did she know a mentor from community college had a connection within the company that funded the center and was able to get her an interview. His version of a graduation gift.

The great Mona Chinwe, Events Coordinator to the stars for most of the ’90s and early ’00s, was her boss. Fallon had grown up reading about her parties in magazines and had dreamed of meeting the woman. Working for her had been a dream come true. Until the time came for Fallon to actually work for the woman.

Once Fallon reached the old historical building the Center used for their offices, she tried not to think about how her weak arms were. The heavy box she was holding only held Christmas decorations yet Fallon panted up the marble staircase to the fifth floor, Events. Fallon set the box on the floor in front of the door gently because most of the ornaments she’d brought were homemade and fragile. She used Mona’s key to unlock the door while trying to catch her breath.

Dark and empty, the office space looked like a museum with all of its wood furnishings and antique furniture. It was probably her favorite office in the entire building because the rest of the office space looked like something out of a Sci-fi film. Fallon knew that it was a gift from the patrons that funded the Center but something had to be said for keeping things simple.

Fallon slid the box of decorations across the threshold and into the office until the box sat in the center of the room. After turning on all the lights for the floor she hooked her phone up to Mona’s speaker and lost herself in her Christmas playlist.

Every good decorator knew that the devil was in the details and that you had to work in layers. Fallon liked to decorate around a theme and her theme this year was Christmas at the Gingerbread house. She hung garlands of silver and white leaves that looked like icing against the dark cherry wood furnishings. For all the chairs in the office she slid on the red, sparkly seat covers she’d sewn in between ordering Mona steaks and generally running the department.

Fallon stocked the office with holiday-themed mugs. In the fridge, she replaced the peppermint syrup that only Mona liked to drink and added a few more seasonal appropriate flavors like eggnog and pumpkin spice. For an hour and a half, Fallon decked the halls of the Events department while singing along to a playlist that was basically 50 % Pentatonix and 50% Mariah Carey.

She was utterly in her zone, all alone in the office building. Fallon sang like no one would hear the missed notes and danced while she cleaned up her mess. By 6:30 the entire office looked like a department store after Halloween and Fallon couldn’t be more proud.

The rest of the office usually arrived around fifteen minutes before or thirty minutes after 7:30. If you were Mona you arrived hung-over around 10:30 and then napped in your office until lunch. Fallon busied herself starting the coffee machine and then set an automatic timer on the lights. She grabbed her purse from the box that used to hold all the decorations and ran into the hallway so that she could start the first half of her actual duties.

With her phone in one hand and her head buried in her purse, Fallon didn’t look up in time to stop herself from running headfirst into what had to be the most muscular body she’d ever seen in real life. Her head bounced off a peck and her arms were trapped between her chest and the sculpted ridges of the most ridiculous abs she’d ever seen. The person she’d rather compare to a brick wall was quick enough to grab her by the arms to keep her from tripping in her stiletto booties. Bringing what was sure to be a nasty fall on marble flooring to an abrupt stop.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry I wasn’t looking where I was-” Fallon pulled herself out of the strong grip of the stranger and thanked whatever God there was that she didn’t trip again in her haste. When she looked up to continue her apology babbling, and offer one of the homemade ginger cookies waiting to be swept up by her co-workers, she found herself looking into the sultry dark eyes of none other than her boss’s boss. The Center’s director, Erik Stevens.

Fallon’s cheeks heated in embarrassment, “Oh, Mr. Stevens.” her eyes dropped down to his bare chest. Brown skin, rippling abs, patterned keloid scars that she was sure meant something deeper than just an interest in tribal scarring. He had obviously just come from the gym, Stevens had a body that looked like it saw a gym often. Meanwhile, the last time Fallon had stepped into a gym was to cancel her membership.

“Slow down, where you off to?” there was that accent. The sound of it reminded Fallon of summers spent visiting her mom’s friends in the projects. It sounded like touch football because even then Fallon was different from most of the girls she knew and preferred playing with the boys to playing with the girls any day.

Erik’s eyes danced up her form and took in her outfit. She’d put on a rust brown corduroy skirt and bell sleeved shirt with purple “gumdrop” buttons and white piping. It matched her theme of gingerbread Christmas and made her look like a cute gingerbread cookie. Although now that her boss stared at her outfit with this infuriating smirk on his plump, full lips, Fallon wasn’t as confident in the look.

Which, to be honest, pissed her off. Taking a deep breath, and pointedly not meeting his eyes, Fallon shrugged out of his grip with a not so subtle cough.

“I have some errands to run for the office before everyone comes in, so,” Fallon began sidestepping around him, careful not to touch any of the warm brown skin he’d left on display.

“Hold on, now.” Erik’s hand caught her by the dip in her hip and with very little strength he pushed her back to her place standing in front of him. A bigger smirk now sat on his face. To deter her from trying to step around him again, he crossed his arms across his chest. His biceps flexed in a delicious way and his broad shoulders looked somehow broader. With one move he’d turned his impressive body into physical temptation.

Fallon was too stubborn to give into temptation. She stared obstinately into eyes that looked alight with mischief and interest. “Let me talk to ya, get to know such a” coffee-colored eyes tracked up and down her frame, “dedicated employee to the cause.”

Fallon resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Stevens had obviously forgotten she knew exactly what lies on the other side of “getting to know her”. Word got around when the big boss was fine as hell and prone to sleeping around the office. The women of the Center loved them some Erik Stevens, and Stevens wasn’t shy about his love for them too.

“Resha was a dedicated employee too,” Fallon elbowed him out the way with a strategic whack from the purse she carried, “And now she’s stuck working in the mail room.”

Stevens’ eyebrow cocked up in surprise, she took advantage of it and stepped around her boss and down the marble staircase. She mentally recalculated how long it would take her to pick up the office’s Starbucks coffee order and the breakfast Mona wouldn’t show up early enough to eat.

Above her, she heard Stevens’ clear his throat and chuckle. The sound echoed throughout the hallway. She felt his eyes follow her down the staircase yet he said nothing to stop her. Fallon left the building without a second glance backward. Looking back would do nothing but stroke his already massive ego.

Fallon had the utmost respect for the man who ran such a charitable organization and also signed her checks. Yet it was a known secret in the office that Erik Stevens is a manwhore and would happily fuck his way through the women of the office. It would be more of a problem if he also wasn’t insanely good at what he did. Stevens cared about the work they did, he cared about his impact on the community.

It was the main thing that made working for him bearable. Stevens was the only person, aside from herself, who worked hard at what they did and gave all of themselves to a project. Fallon wished he wasn’t so concerned with where to put his dick as much as she wished the women of her office had better sense. Work and relationships never worked, she thought everyone knew this.

Fallon waved at the doorman on her way out the building, putting all thoughts of Stevens out of her mind for good.


	2. Chapter 2

After accepting compliments from her coworkers about her decorations Fallon settled into her desk chair and donned her headset. She had three hours of answering phones to look forward to until Mona showed up. The end of November meant it was time to start planning the Center’s annual Toy and Coat Drive. Businesses from all over wanted to be apart of the event so it was up to Fallon to kindly reject over half of them.

Little did they know but Mona wasn’t in charge of picking the business they allowed to donate, Stevens was. But it was basically impossible to reach Stevens outside the company and even harder to get past his assistant, a bald-headed black woman who Fallon had never learned the name of.

Answering calls were pretty much all Fallon had to do that morning which left her hands free to attack the knitting basket she’d hidden underneath her desk. Three years ago Fallon taught herself to knit, mostly so she would have something to give when she was too poor to buy a gift for her secret Santa. During one of her more sober moments, Mona had admired Fallon’s talent and asked her to donate a few scarves to the Toy and Coat Drive as a gift from the Center. 

What had started as a one-off was now a tradition and Fallon would be damned if she let those kids go without scarves this year.

Knitting at her desk, feet propped up, and headset in place is how Stevens finds her. She’s on the phone with a Black-owned toy distributor who’d like to handle the shipping of all their excess toys to the children’s hospital this year. She’d been trying to tell the man for at least thirty of his forty-five-minute rant that she didn’t handle stuff like that but the man was on a roll and wouldn’t be interrupted.

Stevens looked good in dark jeans, a shirt that stretched a tight across his chest, and expensive looking sneakers. His locs were braided back and his fade looked fresh, something she’d missed during their collision. Knowing that the man on the other line wouldn’t notice if she stopped listening, Fallon placed the toy distributor on hold and then fixed her eyes on the man who was technically her boss.

“Yes, Mr. Stevens?” she intoned politely. The memory of heated skin, masculine cologne, and that dimpled, flirtatious smile caused her hands to slow to a stop. Probably for the best, the last time she knitted while having a conversation she’d missed a stitch. Fallon hated having to go back and redo her work.

“C’mon, girl enough with Mr. Stevens shit. You know we’re all family here.” Erik smiled flirtatiously. He leaned an arm on her desk and peered down at her with the warmest brown eyes she’d ever seen.

“Okay then, what do you want Stevens?” Fallon dropped all pretenses at being polite. It wasn’t that she disliked the man, Erik was perfectly capable of being likable and charming. She knew deep down he couldn’t be a total asshole because he was committed to their cause of bettering the community and worked harder than everyone to make sure their plans came to fruition.

That said, Erik Stevens was a player. Worse than that he was a player who showed no remorse for the lives of the women he ruined. There was Cecilia, former Head of Security and first office fling of Eric Stevens. That relationship had lasted as long as it took him to get Keisha from Accounting to meet him for dinner. Both women resigned when Erik started sleeping with Ashley, his first assistant. Ashley was fired and replaced by the black woman who now manned Erik’s desk.

Apparently, she was hired by someone outside the office which explained why Erik had never been able to get into her panties.

After Ashley, there was, Michaella, after Michaella there was Resha. Five of the women Erik slept with either resigned or was fired but not one of them was made a girlfriend. Resha was the outlier. She went from working in the lab with the other scientists to sorting mail in the basement. Fallon may be just an assistant, but she valued her place in the office and refused to jeopardize that for community dick.

“I wanted to know if you’d come to lunch with me?” Erik smiled again, all dimples and swagger. As if he just knew what Fallon’s answer would be.

Fallon took great pleasure in smiling sweetly and saying, “No,” Then she picked up her knitting needles and returned to listening to the man on the other end blather on about his life story.

Although she was no longer looking at him Fallon could feel the heat of Stevens’ gaze on the side of her face. She highly doubted she was the first woman to tell him no. And if she was she was sure he had no shortage of women in the office he could approach who would be willing to be his lover of the week. She’d certainly sat through enough lunches and breaks listening to the women of the office speculate about his dick size and who he was fucking next.

“Hold on, hold on,” Stevens reached across the desk and turned her chair back to face him, “Just like that? Won’t even give a nigga a chance to plead his case?”

Fallon resisted the urge to roll her eyes and settled instead for sighing, “I’m not interested in being one of your groupies.”

“Who said anything about groupies? All I’m asking for is lunch,” Stevens laughed but stopped when he saw that Fallon hadn’t even cracked a smile, “Give me one good reason you won’t go to lunch with me?”

Fallon had several reasons why she shouldn’t go to lunch with him but settled for, “You’re my boss, it would be unethical.”

Stevens smacked his teeth and rolled his eyes, still with that dimpled smile on his handsome face. His whole body rejected the idea, Fallon could see it in the way he shifted on his feet and adjusted his arm on the desk. Stevens wasn’t a very big man but he was built like a brick shithouse and when he moved the room noticed.

Case in point, the entire room was staring at their interaction and doing a bad job at pretending they weren’t. Over his shoulder, Fallon could see her best friends Duncan and Nicole making faces at her. The shock that the big boss had deigned to show his face in their department and interest at her reaction to him had Fallon avoiding that entire side of the room. They acted like she was the first person to see through his bullshit before.

“She said unethical,” Stevens shook his head, “It’s just lunch. I’ll buy,” he said the last sentence as an offering like they were bargaining.

Fallon couldn’t help herself when she laughed and said, “Who said we were making a deal? Does no mean something different where you’re from?”

“No, but check it out, you go to lunch with me, and I’ll tell you all about where I come from.”

Okay, that was smooth, even Fallon had to give him that. Smooth or not though, Fallon refused to be another notch on his bedpost. Everyone knew that Mona promoted from the inside. If Fallon could stick it out a little longer as her assistant she’d be that much closer to becoming a Junior Planner and would finally have the future she’d always dreamed of. That future would go right out the window if she even for a second entertained Stevens and his overactive libido.

Fallon opened her mouth to once again decline his offer for lunch but was interrupted when Mona sauntered into the office looking like something Saturday spit out on Sunday. Her shake and go wig was lopsided and backward, big sunglasses hid her no doubt puffy face, and her body was wrapped in a shapeless robe-like dress that hid the fact that the woman was pushing 50 but had a body closer to that of a sixty-year-old.

Mona approached Fallon’s desk reeking of alcohol and slapped her purse down on the counter without a second look at the man standing next to her. “Girl, I need you to go to the store and buy me a new phone. After that, I need to go to the deli on 7th and get my usual. Mama’s got a hangover the size of the Grand Canyon and I just can’t deal with you people without my coffee.”

Fallon took notes on everything her boss said with one hand and untangled herself from the headset with the other. Mona didn’t wait for her to get her stuff together. Once she’d given her orders she disappeared into her private office and slammed the door behind her.

Fallon blew out a breath and stared at her desk blankly for a few seconds. Mona was a piece of work, but Fallon could handle her. She wondered what Stevens thought after seeing her waltz in here late and reeking of alcohol. A peek at the man revealed that he was staring after Mona with a calculating look on his face. She didn’t have time to wonder what it meant so Fallon left him to his thinking and staring at Mona’s office.

“Hey, hey hey, hold on now,” Erik jogged to catch up with Fallon. In tandem, they walked down the marble staircase to the first floor.

“I don’t have time to ‘hold on’, Mona needs her coffee in the next fifteen minutes or we’ll never hear the end of it.” Fallon didn’t spare Stevens another glance as she crossed the lobby to the heavy, gold embossed doors leading out to the noise and early morning hustle of the city.

Stevens kept pace with her so easily Fallon wanted to stick her leg out and trip him. Instead, she settled for walking in front of him that way no one would think they were walking together.

“You really don’t like me, huh?” Stevens asked the back of her head.

Fallon smiled to herself, “No, I like you,” She spun on her heel and turned to face Stevens. The move was impressive in the boots she was wearing. It helped that the street they were on wasn’t blocked by construction so Fallon could keep the same pace while saying, “When you aren’t hitting on me and sleeping with my co-workers.”

Stevens’ mouth dropped open in shock before breaking into that dimpled smile Fallon knew he brought out when he wanted to charm. She bet his uncle or his father taught him just the way to smile and just the way to laugh so that you looked interested in a girl long enough to get inside her panties. The effect on Fallon was the exact opposite of what he probably expected.

She turned to face forward at the same time she arrived at the “deli” on 7th Mona loved so much.

“7Eleven?” Stevens looked down at her with one cocked eyebrow and a knowing glint in his eye. That glint might look handsome, to some women. Fallon wished she could say she wasn’t one of those women.

“Mona is a snob. I tried to tell her that the only thing you can get at a deli around here was a pizza and a bag of Hot Cheetos. In the end, it was easier to buy her a croissant sandwich and a dollar cup of coffee rather than argue with her.” Fallon paused in the doorway to the convenience store and shook her head, “Why am I telling you this?”

Stevens shrugged broad shoulders that looked so wide Fallon wondered how he fit in the doorframe at all. She prepared herself for more flirting and pestering from the man but he surprised her by remaining silent throughout the entire shopping and buying processes. By the time they walked out the store Stevens had been silent for so long Fallon was getting suspicious.

In her experience, the only time a man shut his mouth long enough for her to notice was when he was coming up with a new way to drive her up the wall. One look at Stevens and Fallon knew he was plotting something. Which made her question why he was asking her out in the first place. She was cute and she knew it. She dressed nice and her hair was always laid no matter if she rocked frontals, wigs, or braids. If it were any other man being this persistent she might just consider it.

But it was Stevens. Even if he wasn’t her boss Fallon could never lump him in with the rest of the men she encountered. He was ridiculously smart and capable. He had the physique of a Greek God and was more arrogant than Zeus himself. He could be an asshole, Fallon had seen that often enough just walking through the office any given Wednesday, but he wasn’t cruel. His dickish attitude usually served a purpose. The entire time she’d known him she’d held nothing but grudging respect and ill-advised attraction to him.

Which is why him suddenly being nice and flirtatious with her set off all of the alarm bells in her head.

Stopping abruptly in the middle of the sidewalk earned Fallon more than a few glares, but it was worth it to fix Stevens with her trademarked stare. It was a stare perfected by her mother and her mother’s mother before her. The Stare, as Duncan and Nicole dubbed it, could sear straight through your eyes to whatever deep hidden secrets you thought no one knew about but you. Fallon had used it often in an office full of lunch thieves and lazy bosses.

Stevens stared down at her with a slowly fading smirk on his full lips. Fallon kept the Stare trained on him at full blast, anything less and the effect would be weakened on a man like him.

“What do you want and why do you think I can give it to you?” Fallon spoke plainly. She didn’t have to sound annoyed or pissed off because Stevens wouldn’t respond to that. Like most men, he found strong emotion from a woman funny or, worse, annoying. No, men like Stevens need to be stripped back to the little boys they still were deep down.

Stevens made a show of laughing and looking at ease, “I can’t just want to get to know you?”

Fallon raised her eyebrows at that, Get to know her? Who did this negro think he was? If his behavior earlier hadn’t tipped her off then that statement was like red flags and sirens.

“What do you want.” Fallon raised her hand stop his protests, “And don’t pull some bullshit like ‘I want to get to know you’ because I will laugh in your face, tell all of my friends, and then we’ll all laugh at you together.”

Stevens held out for a little longer, but as he searched the cityscape around them for an answer he thought Fallon would like she could see his resolve weaken. His brown eyes danced from The Stare back to the city surrounding them. Finally, he broke with a curse.

“Fuck! I need a chick to hang around my place for two weeks while my family is visiting for Christmas.” Stevens couldn’t look her in the eye as he said, “I told them I had a girl and now they want to meet her.”

Fallon poked her lip out in a mock pout, “Aww-”

“Aw shut up.” Stevens rolled his eyes. Fallon giggled and lifted one shoulder.

“I can’t help it. It’s so cute that you want to do something for your family.” Fallon spoke honestly. She had a family, but to be honest, the lot of them weren’t worth speaking to. It was sweet to think that even an asshole like Stevens had people that he cared about.

“I still don’t understand why you need me. There are literally thirty plus women at the office who would pay to your girlfriend.” Fallon started walking towards the office. 7Eleven croissants had a pretty short window where they actually tasted good, after that it was all mush.

Matching her pace, Stevens shoved his hands in his pockets. His shoulders were tense and his face was tight with irritation, “I don’t want an actual girlfriend. Despite what my family thinks I happen to like my life. I don’t want to ask one of these chicks and then they expect it to turn into something forreal.”

Fallon nodded in understanding. Stevens had made it clear after every employee he slept with that he wasn’t looking for a relationship. That didn’t stop him from dating from the office pool and it didn’t stop the women of the office from thinking they would The One. Every girl wanted to be The One, even Fallon to a certain extent. Although she didn’t want to be Stevens’ One. She pitied that woman.

“Wow way to be a decent guy while at the same time being an asshole for lying to your family.” When they reached the office Stevens stepped in front of her to open the door for her. After greeting the doorman they walked up the five flights of marble steps side by side.

“So you gonna help me or not?” Stevens demanded in that abrasive way of his. This Stevens was way more familiar to Fallon than the nice guy trying to take her out for lunch.

“Oh, did I not make that clear? No.” Fallon turned to enter the Events department but Stevens stopped her with a grip on her arm.

“Why not?”

Fallon looked at him like he was crazy, “Uh, did we not establish that I don’t like you?”

Stevens shot her an unimpressed look, “Look I get all that but that’s why it has to be you. I need a female who won’t catch feelings for just a couple of weeks. What are you doing for the last two weeks of December anyway?”

Fallon pointedly looked at his hand on her arm waiting for him to let her go. When he didn’t immediately drop his hold on her she huffed impatiently, “It doesn’t matter what I’m doing because I know what I won’t be doing.” She tried tugging towards the door again but Stevens stopped her with a pleading look on his handsome face. If Fallon wasn’t so annoyed with him she’d be surprised.

“Fuck it, I’ll pay you.” Stevens’ voice was tight with desperation and annoyance.

His words stopped Fallon in her tracks. One thing everyone in the office knew was that Stevens was loaded. He was like, beyond Tony Stark rich which was saying something in this city. If anyone could afford to pay someone to be his girlfriend for two weeks it would be him. Fallon wondered why he didn’t try that from the beginning, it certainly would have been easier than trying to convince her.

“How much?” Fallon peered at Stevens suspiciously.

“Shit, how much you want?” Stevens relaxed at her question. It was the most he’d relaxed all morning. Fallon wondered if it was because they’d gotten into more familiar territory for him.

She tried to think of every prostitute movie she’d ever seen in her life but all she could think of was Pretty Woman. Fallon knew for a fact she wouldn’t be sleeping with him so she didn’t think she could ask for Pretty Woman prices. Then again, her rent wasn’t cheap for her shoebox of an apartment. And there were some projects she was working on that need fabric or glue or a criminal amount of butter, sugar, and flour. Luckily enough Stevens was desperate for some reason. She could probably ask for six months rent and he’d write the check then and there.

“What would I have to do?” Fallon was able to free her arm from his grip now that he knew he had her attention.

“Stay at my place for a bit, sit through a few family dinners, and then open presents on Christmas Day. I promise we’ll be broken up before New Years.” Stevens studied her face as he stated his terms.

To Fallon, it all seemed reasonable enough but something inside of her refused to believe it could all be that easy. But she didn’t have the time to go over his terms with a fine tooth comb the way she wanted to. After a few seconds of deliberation, Fallon decided she’d do it, but refused to agree until she had a number and a contract drawn up to protect her interests.

With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Fallon grumbled, “Fine,”

Stevens beamed. The smug look sickened her so she made sure to add, “Meet me after work when everyone leaves with a contract and how much you’re gonna give me for the two weeks.” She turned back to the office door but stopped and turned to give Stevens the Stare one last time.

“Only approach me if everyone in the building is gone. I don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea and actually thinking we’re together.” Fallon turned on her heel before he could say anything else and entered the Events department. 

Behind her, she could hear Stevens laughing. It took everything in her not to turn around and flip him off through the glass. He was still her boss after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Fallon suffered through a lunch filled with teasing from Duncan and Nicole about catching the boss’ eye. It was only fitting since the three of them had spent the last two years judging Stevens for shopping for lovers in the office. She didn’t tell them anything about the deal she was going to make with him. Knowing them they’d tease her for it and then never let it go. Plus a part of her refused to acknowledge that she had actually agreed to help her boss lie to his family. For Christmas no less.

Just the thought of tainting her perfect holiday with his shenanigans sent her into a stressed frenzy of knitting. She finished up scarf number five during the afternoon meeting this way. Mona held it together enough for Fallon to zone out which was rare for her and lucky for Fallon. Now, in the half darkness of the deserted office space, she sat hunched over the skirt panel she was working on trying not to think of the fact that at any minute Stevens would be walking through the office door.

She’d tried looking him up while Mona was napping but the search results for Erik Stevens was too vast to be of any use to her. Fallon knew her way around a sewing needle, a knitting needle, and a recipe. Ask her to search for something that took more than Google and she was helpless. It helped, that her job as Mona’s assistant didn’t require that much in-depth internet research.

After ruining the straight line she’d been working on, Fallon cursed and started pulling at the thread so she could restart the stitch. While inspecting the fabric to make sure she hadn’t ripped anything, she cursed herself for being so sloppy.

“You know you can buy that shit already made right?” Stevens’ voice came from above Fallon’s head and surprised her so much that she pricked her finger with her sewing needle on accident. She cursed and placed the lightly bleeding digit in her mouth.

With a pointed glare at the silent intruder, Fallon spoke around her finger, “Maybe if you paid me more-”

 

Stevens waved her words away like a bad smell, “Speaking of paying I came up with a rate for our arrangement.”

Fallon studied the skirt panel in her hand, the fabric was hand painted and a light shade of cream. If she got blood on it because of this negro she would one hundred percent go off on him.

“God it sounds so romantic when you say it like that,” Fallon deadpanned. Once she was satisfied that the fabric hadn’t been stained, she set it and her sewing supplies in the kit she kept under her desk.

“Hardy har, my nigga. This shit is serious. If my family suspects for even a second that I’m lying-”

“I mean you are. You’re definitely are lying,” Fallon pointed out helpfully. The scowl on Stevens’ face let her know he didn’t find it so helpful.

“Yeah, but they don’t know that. And they won’t,” His voice took on a different depth than before. The weight behind his words rocked her. He really was committed to deceiving his family. It made her wonder why he was doing all this anyway.

“Why does it matter if they think you have a girlfriend anyway? You’re a grown man with a pretty damn admirable day job. Your personality may leave a lot to be desired but a family has a way of overlooking all that.” Fallon watched Stevens lean his forearms against her desk. The action made his already large arms look much larger.

“My aunt and uncle are real traditional. They took me in as a kid and made me feel like one of their own, so I feel like I owe it to them to make them feel like they did a good job raising me.” Stevens shrugged as if it was simple. Fallon narrowed her eyes at him.

“Try again, and this time leave out the BET made for tv movie plotline.” Stevens fought off a smile.

“Wow,” he tried to sound hurt by her accusation but his smile was too big and his shoulders shook with laughter, “Fine. My family is traditional. To the point that my aunt would send women out here for me to meet on the off chance that I’d end up marrying one of them.”

“Does your aunt know that you’re like, pushing forty and the director of your own foundation? You work crazy hours all week, and that’s coming from someone who works way harder than you.” Fallon stood from her chair and circled the desk to stand in front of Stevens.

Stevens’ face twisted at her words, “Forty, bro? You think I’m pushing forty?”

Fallon rolled her eyes, “Hold on to your vanity, I’m not done yet.”

Stevens shook his head in disbelief, “You said forty,”

Clapping her hands loudly Fallon pronounced each syllable as she said, “Fo-cus!” when she knew she had his attention she continued, “Bottom line, you’re a grown ass man and you shouldn’t have to pay someone to be your girlfriend to appease your family.”

She allowed him a moment to soak in her words before adding, “That said, show me how much money I’m getting and show me the contract.”

They sat in the office lounge with the papers spread out on the coffee table. Fallon made hot chocolate from the mix in the breakroom. She even fixed Stevens a cup although she didn’t add the marshmallows and cinnamon that she put in hers. The contract was simple. There was a start date and expected end date. All of her duties were outlined in bold and italicized (god he was such a dick) while all of Stevens’ duties had a line at the end of them in case Fallon wanted to add anything he himself hadn’t covered.

With her special Christmas pen with the green ink, Fallon added and crossed out what she liked. There would be no PDA at work, this she underlined, and at his house, the affection would be reserved for his family’s eyes only.

“What about their ears?” Stevens’ asked, just to be funny.

Fallon, deep in thought about the contract but not so deep she couldn’t come up with a reply spoke in a seemingly distracted tone of voice, “Even if I was your girlfriend I can promise you I wouldn’t have sex with you with your parents in the house.”

Stevens smiled so wide his dimples became deep divots she wanted to poke her finger in, “My girl would be beggin’ for this dick, family be damned.”

Fallon gave a big fake smile, “Well then let us thank god I’m not your girl.”

They went on like this for a while. A back and forth interspersed with Stevens trying to flirt and Fallon shooting him down, hard, every time. The terms of the contract, once she’d gone over them and added her notes, were easy to agree too. Neither one of them wanted an actual relationship from this. Fallon wanted her money and Erik wanted his family to get off his back. Before they signed the agreement though Fallon had one more demand.

“I want to be promoted to Junior Planner.” Fallon stared Stevens in the eye, daring him to deny her. He’d seen Mona this morning, and he was too smart not to know that she was drinking her way through her paychecks and barely doing the work she’d been hired to do. “If it wasn’t for me the Events department would be a disaster.”

Stevens rubbed at the bit of scruff on his chin in thought, “Why not ask for her job?”

Fallon rolled her eyes, “I thought you were smarter than that? I can’t run a whole department when I don’t even have experience as a planner. I’m fine with working my way up the ladder but I know Mona is never going to promote me because I’m too valuable as her assistant.”

When Stevens hesitated once again Fallon grabbed his hand with both of hers and held on tight, “Stevens you know that if I had a degree I could have applied to be a planner like everyone else. Don’t be like everyone else and punish me for being too poor for higher education.”

As a last resort, she pulled out the puppy dog eyes. Fallon usually used it against Nicole to get her to give her the last blueberry bagel. She didn’t honestly think it’d work on a man like Stevens though. She hoped that the attempt annoyed him enough to give in to her demands. Brown eyes locked onto brown eyes until Stevens rolled his eyes and snatched the contract out of Fallon’s hands.

“Fine, I’ll add it to our terms.” He scribbled Fallon’s addition to the contract. Then he slashed a chicken scratch signature across the page. Stevens held the contract out to her to sign too but before she could grab it he pulled it out of her grasp with one of those long tree branch arms of his.

Man, Fallon hated being short.

“But, if we do this you have to call me by my first name.” Stevens stared her down with an arrogant glint in his dark eyes.

“What else would I call you in front of your fami-”

“Nope, I want you to call me by first name all the time.” Stevens laughed when Fallon glared at him.

“If I called you-”

“Erik, say it for me, baby. Say my name.” He was enjoying teasing her way too much and Fallon hated him for it.

Closing her eyes, Fallon drew in all the strength she had. She needed it, the urge to smack him was growing stronger by the minute.

“Remind me how much money I’m getting?” Fallon kept her eyes closed. She was afraid if she looked at him now she really might snap and go after him with her knitting needles.

“$40,000, from your boo,” The sound of shifting on the couch was the only warning Fallon received before Stevens’ voice came back right next to her ear, “From Erik, say it for me now.”

Fallon could do a lot with forty thousand dollars. Hell, with her bank account Fallon could do a lot with twenty dollars. What were two weeks? Two weeks celebrating her favorite holiday. It’s not like it was her family they were lying to. She could do this, she would do this. She peeked at the man she’d be “dating” for two weeks and tried to replace his smug smirk with dollar signs. And not only dollar signs, a promotion. He’d promised her.

With that in mind, Fallon held out one hand for the contract and looked Stevens in the eyes, “Okay, Erik. Let’s do this.”


	4. Chapter 4

Fallon showed up for work the next day dressed like a candy cane. Her dress was a bold red and white striped fit and flare number with a modest hemline and a snowflake like lace back. She’d spent a lot of time stitching that lace onto the dress so she curled her hair into big ringlets and piled them high in a bouncy ponytail. When she arrived at work everyone took note of her outfit. And the sour apple pie cookies she carried in one hand.

While her co-workers devoured her homemade cookies Fallon sauntered over to her desk to find a bald-headed bombshell sitting in her seat. The woman gave off the same aura as Erik’s assistant but where the other woman was as stoic as an oak tree this woman smiled brightly when Fallon approached.

“Cute dress,” the stranger at her desk beamed. It was like she was oblivious to the confused stare Fallon gave her. Well, either she was oblivious or she knew exactly what she was doing. Which meant only one thing.

Uttering a weak thanks Fallon charged out the Events department and stomped up the two flights of stairs leading to Erik’s office. The usual bald-headed beauty sat at her station in front of Erik’s desk but the woman was preoccupied with deciphering Fallon’s outfit as she approached. It’s not every day you say an angry candy-cane charging at you up a flight of stairs. Using this distraction to her advantage she barged into Eri’s office before she could be stopped.

Fallon found Erik standing in front of several diagrams and blueprints with a severe look on his handsome face. She opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind because really, who the fuck did he think he was? Sure, he was her boss but that didn’t give him the right to go giving her job away. And if he was giving her job away she at least wanted to keep the chair. She’d made the seat covers herself after all.

“Who do you-”

Erik raised one hand to shut her up and used the other to touch a hidden earpiece, “Yeah, I can hear you. I just got the prints right now.”

Fallon deflated once she realized he was on a phone call. In the back of her mind, she’d always known that her boss was a hard worker. It was just easier to see him as a man who thought with his dick rather than a man who kept the Center running at peak efficiency. While he continued his phone conversation, Fallon’s eyes wandered around his office.

It wasn’t as big as she thought it would be. More like an attic space than the office of a man as rich as Erik was. The walls were a simple white, paneled and covered in holographic screens. The carpet on the floor was so thick and plush Fallon felt like she was sinking into the floor with every step. All in all the most ornate part of his office was his desk. His desk was a huge, obsidian black and gold modern affair that held a variety of computers, papers, and gadgets on its surface.

The desk was so blanketed with work that Fallon doubted that Erik even remembered what the surface of the desk looked like. It was the desk of a workaholic. She couldn’t help but compare the organized blanket of work on Erik’s desk to the curated cleanliness of Mona’s.

Erik ended the phone with a curt goodbye and then stared at Fallon expectedly, “What? You come barging in my office, huffin’, and puffin’ like you tryna start something,” The annoyance on his face gave way to a superior smile, “Are you tryna start something,”

Fallon promptly rolled her eyes. Just as she was starting to think good of the man he ruined it by opening his mouth, “I want to know why your assistant’s much nicer clone is sitting at my desk.”

Erik looked confused at the question and when realization dawned on his face he met Fallon’s eyes and said, “You said you wanted a promotion, someone had to take your job.”

Fallon glared at him, “That would have been nice for you tell me before I showed up to work today looking like a damn fool.”

Erik didn’t seem as concerned with Fallon’s situation as she was. As she spoke, he began moving stuff around on his desk. “Look it was bound to happen sooner or later. I figured you were ready to go anyhow since you begged so gotdamn hard for me to promote you.”

“Well did you?”

“Did I what?” Erik parroted back at her.

Fallon crossed her arms and began tapping the toe of her white shoes, “Okay now I know you’re smarter than that.”

Erik smirked at her reaction and then raised his hands in mock surrender, “Hey I’m just tryna make conversation.”

“I don’t want a conversation! I want to know if I have a job or not.” Fallon could strangle him, but she doubted they’d allow her to knit or sew in prison.

“Okay yeah about that, I was gonna talk to you before you came in but you weren’t here at the same time as yesterday.” Erik stalked from behind his desk and leaned on the other side of it, facing her. “It wouldn’t be right if my girlfriend was also my employee.”

Fallon had nothing to say to that. No, scratch that, Fallon had a lot to say to that. Starting with, “I’m not your real girlfriend!” and ending with threats about his anatomy and her second-hand designer booties. Luckily though none of that came out of her mouth. It was almost Christmas after all. This month was supposed to be about tidings and good cheer instead Fallon was picturing her boss with a knitting needle poking out of his neck.

Instead of yelling, Fallon spoke with the calm of someone a pin drop away from going apeshit, “First of all, I told you so. Second, where am I supposed to work if not at my job?”

Erik shrugged but Fallon was having none of it. Her rent and bills were paid until January but missing half a month’s wages would do nothing but make it impossible for her to afford rent in February. Something his rich ass probably never had to think about.

“Look if you’re worried about your place just tell me where it is and I’ll work something out with the landlord. In the meantime, you could start moving your stuff to my place and -”

“Wait your place! You said your family wasn’t coming until the last two weeks of-of the month. Why would I be moving in now?” Fallon stammered. She placed a hand on her head in pain. If she kept this up she’d be wound so tight from the stress she’d give herself a migraine.

“You think my family not gone notice that the girl I told them I’m with doesn’t know shit about my place?” Erik rolled his eyes as if she were the one being unreasonable.

“How long do they think we’ve been together?” Fallon rubbed at her aching head. She couldn’t be more tired with this conversation if she tried. As it was she wasn’t certain she even wanted to finish it. Erik, on the other hand, looked totally at ease leaning against his desk.

“Six months,” Erik stated. When Fallon groaned an dropped her head into her hands he continued, “I didn’t tell them much about you. Just that we’re together and we’re keeping shit lowkey until we know where we want to take this.”

“I don’t know why I agreed to this.” Fallon shook her head in disbelief. “Is it normal for your unemployed girlfriend to move in with you after six months?”

Erik scoffed, “Fuck if I know.”

Fallon spotted a black leather couch and dropped into it. She winced when the hard upholstery hit her butt but didn’t complain out loud. Of course, Erik’s couch was uncomfortable, the man wasn’t concerned with anyone’s comfort but his own.

“Well then,” Fallon tried not to sound so defeated but all of that righteous fury about someone sitting at her desk had abated into a weariness that made her bones feel heavy. “What does your unemployed girlfriend do while you’re at work all day?”

Erik’s shoulders started to lift Fallon gave him The Stare, “Nigga if you say ‘I don’t know’ one more time,”

Erik laughed at her threat, “Look I know it’ll be hard for you to take it easy for a while, but you have to trust me. You said you didn’t want anyone to know we were dating and this is just taking that a little further.”

Erik was nice enough to allow her to absorb his words in silence. Which sucked because she’d much rather he kept talking, then she could focus on ignoring him instead of heavily analyzing his words. Because when she really thought about it the smug bastard had done something smart. If he’d promoted her straight from Mona’s assistant to a Junior Planner it would have made anyone finding out about their fake relationship that much worse.

Fallon could also see the sense in keeping their work connection a secret. If the entire office knew of Erik’s wandering johnson then his family most likely knew too, at least to some extent. They would probably look down on her as either a golddigger, a girl sleeping her way to the top, or worse someone temporary. Fallon may not want to date Erik but that didn’t mean she wanted his family to think she was just some passing fling. She felt like that would put her money, and eventual promotion, in jeopardy.

He was, after all, paying her to sell his aunt an uncle on the idea that he was in a committed relationship.

“Fine, I’ll move into your stupid apartment. But I’m not carrying my things out of the office in front of everyone. And I want my own room. None of that sharing a bed nonsense until your family gets here.” Fallon tried to sound demanding, indignant, stern. Instead, she felt like she sounded like a bratty little kid, trying to get her way by whining.

Erik smiled at her reaction, the man knew victory when he saw it. Fallon blocked out his smile by closing her eyes and trying to force herself to sleep on his uncomfortable couch. She didn’t want to leave until the building was deserted and she didn’t want to look at Erik lest she actually changed her mind and tried to kill him. Maybe not kill him, with how irritated she was Fallon would settle for serious maiming requiring a cast and crutches to actual death.


	5. Chapter 5

“So who is it exactly, that you want me to deceive?” Fallon asks Erik later that night on the drive over to his place.

Clearing out her desk had been hard, harder still was ignoring the questioning texts in the group chat from Nicole and Duncan. She didn’t know where to begin to explain that because she agreed to catfish Erik’s family she couldn’t work at the Center anymore. The Center was her life, it had to be because she couldn’t make a lot more working somewhere else with her resume. Fallon really believed in their cause and they knew that.

She couldn’t lie and say she was actually dating Erik because Fallon had never been shy about how much she disliked his antics. She knew she had to come up with something, Nicole and Duncan were relentless when they thought she was hiding something. Serves her right for never having a filter with them.

“My Aunty and Unc are old school and old money. They’ll tell you to your face if they don’t like you but my Unc wouldn’t treat you bad because of it,” Erik’s lip curled up in one corner.

He looked nice in the darkness of the car, outside the streets whizzed past and the view in front of them was empty of cars. It was so different from the crowded streets outside her apartment. Her neighbor was in the midst of throwing a party when they arrived to pick up her stuff. Pretty typical of them on a Tuesday night to be honest. The street in front of her building was loaded with idling cars causing all traffic passing through to sit at a standstill.

Fallon hurriedly packed as much of her life away as she could in two suitcases, a huge vintage trunk, and a duffle bag. The older brother of Cynthia, the building’s resident stylist, helped her carry everything downstairs. When Fallon returned to Erik’s car to load her stuff she found the man glaring at the partiers and cars blocking the streets. His look screamed murder on anyone who scratched the shimmery gold paint job on his expensive car.

He didn’t move to help her pack her shit away in his trunk but Cynthia’s older brother was nice enough to help pack everything into the sleek car and promise to watch out for any strange characters around her door while she was gone. She didn’t have anyone to hug goodbye so she hugged him and then slipped back into Erik’s car without a backward glance at the home she was leaving behind.

“I have two cousins, but we’re real close ‘cause we grew up together.” Erik sped through a yellow light. “Shuri is a fuckin genius. Smartest person I know. She’s only 16 but she’s already working on the technology we’re using at the Center.”

Fallon smiled at his description. Shuri sounded amazing, she couldn’t wait to meet her.

“T'Challa is fuckin square, man, without me in his life he’d be a shy ass virgin. He was always tryna be the good son.”

Fallon smirked, “There’s nothing wrong with wanting to please your parents. Especially if those parents were good enough to take in your ass..”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Erik turned smoothly onto a street that led uphill into what Fallon could tell was a rich neighborhood.

Fallon shook her head, “Nothing at all. Focus on the road before you drive us off a cliff.”

Normally, driving so late at night on a winding uphill road would set Fallon on edge. Yet the way Erik handled the expensive luxury car, one hand on the wheel keen dark eyes staring out into the din, she felt completely safe. It was remarkable that a man like Erik could make her feel safe.

At a little over six feet, Erik was a powerful man. His body, his presence, his perfectly straight white teeth, and that devastating dimpled smile he pulled out when he was really laughing made him seem untouchable. Sometimes at work, he could be heard by the other departments, barking orders and putting the fear of god into the hearts of those who crossed him or made him slow down.

It was a common sight at the office to see someone enter a room with Erik in it and then turn around and leave just so they wouldn’t have to face him.

“What about you?” Erik’s voice, deep and hoarse after a day of barking orders into his phone, made her shiver in her seat.

“What about me?” Fallon stared into the darkness outside her window but her eyes kept landing on Erik’s faint reflection.

“Family and shit. You all up in my business, how ‘bout I get all up in yours.” Erik’s tone was light and joking. It wasn’t something she was used to hearing from him.

Fallon pushed her hair off the nape of her warm neck with numb, cold fingers, “Not much business to get into. What family I acknowledge live in the desert and we’re not close. Everyone else…”

The smell of vodka, orange juice, and spearmint set her already alert nerves on edge. The scent was only in her imagination. Just like the hell in her head, the scent was confined there. Fallon knew she didn’t have to bring it out and relive it.

Shaking out trembling hands, Fallon wiped her sweaty palms on her cute, candy-striped dress and tried to force cheer into her voice. “So I’m basically an orphan,”

Her voice matched the cheery tone she’d aimed for but the mood in the car darkened immediately. Fallon heard the sound of leather squeaking and turned in time to see Erik’s jaw become more pronounced when he clenched his teeth.

“You said you have family right?” Erik’s voice sounded sharp, challenging. In seconds he managed to make her go from feeling surprisingly safe to immediately aware that her side of the car faced the edge of the road up the cliff.

“Sort of-”

“Nah, fuck that,” Erik snapped, “Either you do or you don’t. You can’t be sort of pregnant can you?”

“It’s not like my family is actually dead it’s just -”

“Exactly,” Erik abruptly stopped the car in front of a dark ranch-style house, “So you ain’t no fuckin orphan.” His words marked the end of their conversation and left Fallon feeling as if she’d been put in her place.


	6. Chapter 6

Erik’s place was a sprawling ranch house in an older part of LA. After letting them into the house he engaged a locking mechanism that would look more at home at a bank or the US Treasury. That done he started tapping at a tablet set into the wall. Lights, one by one, illuminated his open plan home. Sleek luxurious looking furniture, an expensive entertainment center, and gaming setup, and a kitchen Fallon wanted to make love to were the first things her eyes landed on.

She was surprised at the neatness of his home. In her experience men who lived alone usually had a wall of shoes and/or snapbacks lined up meticulously on a wall. The expensive sneakers usually had their own area, probably next to the flat screen tv sitting on top of an IKEA tv stand. There is always, literally always a mattress either on the floor or on a baseboard that’s on the floor.

Erik’s place was nothing like that. It was certainly masculine, the dark leather couch and matching armchairs would have never been her first choice. There was the huge flat screen tv but it was mounted to the wall and surrounded by speakers, DVD’s, video games, and trinkets Fallon would have to get close to if she wanted to examine them.

“I gave you the room with its own bathroom. I’ll go get the rest of your stuff.” Erik’s voice was devoid of all emotion and he didn’t meet her eyes as he shouldered past her through the front door.

Okay then, Fallon thought with an eye roll, Fallon moved further into Erik’s house. Along, glass lined hallway led to a bunch of doors that looked exactly the same. The first door she tried led to a guest bathroom, the second was a linen closet. The third door Fallon opened looked like a guest room to her, but that didn’t mean this was her room. She decided that as long as the ensuite bathroom had enough counter space for all her stuff she didn’t care where she slept at this point.

Despite her headache nap earlier in the day, Fallon felt drained. All of her weight seemed to be pulling towards the ground. With arms that felt as weak as they looked, she dropped her bags on the floor inside the room and flopped delicately onto the bed. She didn’t want to get her makeup all over the soft sheets and her hair was annoying enough without getting it all frizzy rubbing against fabric

Erik found her like this carrying all of her bags at once. He dropped her bags into the door frame of her room unceremoniously. Fallon would complain if her luggage wasn’t second hand and already pretty battered.

“You’re only going to be here for two weeks,” Erik nudged her trunk with one sneaker-clad foot, “What’s all this for?”

Fallon eyed the trunk, “That holds my clothes,”

Erik pointed at her suitcase, “Hair and makeup.”

Erik squinted at the size of the suitcase but didn’t ask her to elaborate. “Alright, then what’s the rest of this for?”

Fallon settled more comfortably into the bed, this mattress was memory foam and way better than her old as spring mattress. She couldn’t afford to get a new mattress and had convinced herself that she didn’t need a new mattress because her old one wasn’t that bad. If she could beat her own ass she would. This mattress cupped every curve and dip of her body all while supporting her. Fallon wanted to take this mattress home with her but she doubted the king-sized mattress would fit into her studio.

“I have a few projects I work on outside of work. Since I’m not going to be working anymore,” cue glare at Erik, “I figured I needed something to occupy my time so I brought it along.”

Erik looked at the three bags dedicated to her sewing alone with disgust. Sucking his teeth he shot Fallon an annoyed look, “Man, just keep yo shit neat and we won’t have a problem.

Fallon waved a hand in his direction that she hoped conveyed whatever answered he wanted. Already, her eyes were slipping closed. Erik said something else, she couldn’t hear him over how soft his mattress and pillows were, then he left.

 

Fallon woke up with a start hours later, still dressed in her candy cane dress, in an unfamiliar bed. Her heart pounded and her skin felt clammy. The lingering memory of her dream, more like nightmare, had her shooting out of bed in search of a shower. Her dream had been vivid, too vivid. Her and Erik, celebrating Christmas like they were in a black Rockwell painting. The dream wasn’t any different from Fallon’s usual dreams about quaint domesticity. It was the addition of Erik that had her reaching for her lemongrass body wash.

The guest bathroom was so luxurious it was intimidating. Black marble tile with gold veins line the walls and contrasted starkly against the pure white marble on the floor. The shower didn’t have a nozzle in sight. Instead, when Fallon figured out how to turn the contraption on, water came down from the ceiling like a waterfall. It was like something out of a magazine or a movie.

“Whoa!” Fallon’s mouth dropped open. She could do some awesome shower concerts in here!

Fallon fawned over herself in that bathroom for hours. She even washed her hair and prepared it to be blown out the next day. She carefully applied every layer of her skincare, singing along to the music coming out of the hidden Bluetooth speakers. She exfoliated her body and shaved the bits that hadn’t seen a razor since the second week of July.

It was midnight when she finished. Her skin smelled sweet like honey and was as soft as silk. Her long hair was moisturized and wrapped away in a silk scarf. Fallon even took the time to do her nails, her icy blue Christmas inspired manicure filled her heart with a little burst of joy every time she caught sight of her hands. Erik may have taken her job away, but the asshole couldn’t stop her from doing anything else she enjoyed.

Wide awake after two naps, Fallon felt restless sitting in her room. She couldn’t hear any noises outside her room. If Erik was a sane person she’d assume he was asleep. But just by virtue of sitting in his guest room because she agreed to catfish his family Fallon already knew that nigga was awake somewhere. The last thing she wanted to do was run into him.

So Fallon unpacked. When in doubt, give yourself something to do. It had been her motto since she was a girl. Back then the work had distracted from the awful yelling she could hear from her parents’ bedroom. As an adult it allowed her to manage her anxiety in a way that didn’t result in a panic attack. It was why she had so many hobbies. Yeah, she loved baking and sewing but neither one of those crafts was exactly cheap.

Her room was boring and white. The sheets were white. The bed platform gave the bed a floating appearance and white lights lit up the gap between the platform and the floor. The wood on the floor was even a bleached, sandy colored wood. It looked like a bedroom an Influencer would have and Fallon took a lot of pleasure making her mark on the blank space.

She set her sewing supplies up by the desk and armchair in the corner and filled the closet with her handmade and thrift store clothes. In the bathroom, she took over the entire counter with her makeup and hair tools. Fallon made the space her own in as little as thirty minutes. She’d been hoping it would take longer.

“Oh for christ’s sake, if you’re gonna be a baby about confronting him you might as well get ahead on your knitting.” Fallon cursed herself. She never hid away or held her tongue when something was bothering her. Yet she found it hard to work up the courage to confront Erik after his sudden mood change in the car.

Instead, like the coward she was, Fallon settled into the armchair and took out her needles and fabric. At least something good had come out of Erik giving her job away, now she had a lot of time to work on the scarves for the little kids.


	7. Chapter 7

Fallon knitted her heart out until dawn. Then, to give her aching fingers a break, she headed into Erik’s kitchen. His kitchen was more modern and masculine than her dream kitchen, but the fridge was huge and he had a double oven. Those were the two things Fallon cared about the most.

First things first she started working on breakfast. Erik usually arrived at the Center at 6:00 am. In all the times she’d run into him she’d never seen him bring a meal with him. Fallon suspected that’s why he always had an attitude at work.

His breakfast didn’t take long so she made him a lunch to go too. While cleaning up her mess Fallon checked his pantry and cabinets for the basics she needed to make a simple sponge cake or pie crust. Erik’s kitchen was better stocked than she expected. Just from her simple perusal, Fallon could see she had basically everything she needed to bake an apology dish for Nicole and Duncan

After taking her phone off Do Not Disturb, her tiny old iPhone exploded with missed calls, texts, and voicemails from her two best friends. It wasn’t often she left them hanging like this, yet Fallon had no idea how to confront them. They didn’t lie to each other. And even if she could lie Fallon knew they’d never believe that she was dating Erik of her own volition.

Fallon shook out her hands, they’d gone numb and slick with sweat. She could barely grip her phone. Taking a shaking breath, Fallon hastily typed a response into the group chat.

**Fallon: Hey guys. Not dead. Not fired. Explain later at lunch today? I’ll bring goodies.**

There, she’d done it. Short, sweet, and she’d promised treats. There was very little Nicole and Duncan wouldn’t do for one of her desserts. Fallon wasn’t exaggerating. While visiting his mom in Minnesota for Christmas, Duncan drove back to LA without stopping because Nicole told him she was making baklava.

There was no response from either of them, it was 4:00 am after all. Fallon set her phone aside and washed her hands. She had apology desserts to make.

Nicole loved lemon bars with a coconut cream icing to soothe the tartness of the lemon. Fallon baked a baker’s dozen, filling each bar of lemon sponge with the tart lemon custard, and the iced a delicate lace pattern with the coconut cream icing. Those done, she set Nicole’s bars in a container in the fridge to set.

For Duncan, Fallon went all out and made apple spice cake donuts, topped with the remainder of the coconut cream icing from Nicole’s batch. She dusted a cinnamon sugar mixture over the iced donuts using a clock face stencil to create a cute sugary design. Using candied apple slices as hands, she set the clock at 10 and 2, a private joke between the two of them. Duncan’s donuts went into their own container, but she left these out on the counter. She didn’t want the cake donuts to cool too fast and become dry.

Fallon smiled down at the finished product, feeling as pleased as the Cheshire Cat. Man, she was a fucking baking addict. She didn’t know why. Fallon didn’t particularly like sweets. Baking had been a hobby suggested to her by the internet when her anxiety had turned her into a hyper-focused mess. The precision of baking soothed her and then the decorative elements challenged her creative side.

Once again, she cleaned up her mess and then raced to her room so she could get dressed. No sound came out of Erik’s room but she knew he had to be in there. The open floor plan meant she’d have heard his bedroom door open from the kitchen. If he’d left the house he’d have had to pass Fallon when she was in the kitchen to get to the front door.

Fallon straightened her hair and arranged it in a half up half down hairdo that looked romantic and softened her eyes. It was a style she’d never had time for while working at the Center. Her hair looked so good, Fallon even put on lipstick and mascara. It was that kind of day today.

At 5:30 Fallon returned to the kitchen to pack her friends goodies into her craft bag. Erik may have fired her but Fallon refused to sit around his house. Knowing her luck that’d be just the time for some long lost child or baby mama to show up looking for Erik. The man was obviously crazy. Fallon didn’t even want to meet the woman he might have impregnated.

Her phone chimed just as Fallon opened the fridge for Nicole’s bars. The sound shocked her out of thoughts to make a cider to go along with Duncan’s donuts. She knew he’d have the most problem with her situation with Erik. He’d always been like a big brother to her. They’d met during her first month living alone in the city. He’d taught her a lot. It made having anxiety in a new place easier to deal with. She always had a friend.

**Duncan: U ok doll ??**

Fallon smiled at Duncan’s text, look at him always worrying about her.

**Fallon: I’m fine D, explain everything at lunch. I made ur fav!!!!**

“Who’s D?” Erik asked around a mouthful of the breakfast burrito she’d made him.

Fallon shrieked and jumped a foot into the air, “Oh My God!”

Clutching her heart, she whirled on Erik and fixed him with a glare, “Why the hell are you sneaking around? You scared the hell out of me,”

Erik shrugged, “It’s my house,”

Fallon glared at him, “So? And I’m living in it. I’d appreciate not being snuck up on,”

Erik rolled his eyes but nodded. Fallon didn’t believe for a second that he’d actually change but she appreciated that he lied to her. It was too early in the morning to want to strangle him.

“Who’s D?” Erik asked again, this time sans burrito.

Fallon roughly shouldered past him to the fridge and took out Nicole’s lemon bars, “Duncan is my friend and apart of the Events Department at the Center.” Fallon had to push past him again to get back to her bag.

Didn’t make no damn sense for a man that aggravating to have shoulders so wide and a waist so trim. Erik had chosen a light grey long sleeve sweatshirt today. His customary chain was around his neck, matching with the gold aviator frames on his handsome face. His locs were pulled taught in a ridiculous bun atop Erik’s head.

And worst of all, he smelled so good.

“What he want this early?” Erik’s voice was too casual.

Fallon stared at him before answering, “Well he and my other best friend Nicole noticed when you replaced me with the walking goddess. And I didn’t feel like explaining to them that I agreed to catfish our boss’s parents for twenty grand.”

All the heat left Erik’s eyes at once, now he looked bored, “Why not just tell them we’re dating?”

Fallon snorted and laughed at the very thought. When she looked back up at Erik she noticed his face was tight.

“What’s funny?”

“You’re kidding, right? My friends would never believe that you and I were dating. Even if I wanted to tell them I wouldn’t because my friends and I don’t lie to each other.”

Fallon packed her purse and then carefully placed the strap on her shoulder. “Let’s go, if we want to make it when you usually get in we gotta leave now to beat the traffic.”

Fallon started towards the door but had to stop because of the Erik sized blockage. He was standing still, one hand holding the rest of the breakfast she’d made him, the other holding the bag of lunch. And he stared into her eyes, searching for something.

“You really don’t like me,” the words weren’t a question.

Fallon gave him an answer anyway, “What have you given me to like, in all the time we’ve known each other?”

He didn’t answer. Together they exited his house, got into his car, and drove down into the morning light. If they were lucky, they might beat traffic.


	8. Chapter 8

Erik started in on his workload as soon as they entered his office. Fallon preoccupied herself with knitting and listening to music on her phone. Erik had been quiet during the drive, and now in his office, he didn’t acknowledge her presence beyond making sure his assistant brought her coffee too.

The look on his assistant’s face when Erik gave her their order belonged on a t-shirt. Fallon hadn’t the heart to tell her that she did not want Erik Stevens the way she thought she did. Something told her that it wouldn’t help at all. Fallon was going to be around for the rest of the month, and the woman would notice her presence. Especially if she handled Erik’s schedule both on and off the clock.

Ten minutes before lunchtime, Fallon packed her knitting away and grabbed the desserts she’d made on her way out of Erik’s office. She’d just made it to the threshold of the door before Erik’s voice came booming from over her shoulder.

“You headed out?” Erik tapped at his screen before standing up from his desk.

Fallon sighed, “Yes, no you can’t come.”

Erik walked around the desk towards her, “Why not?”

“Because explaining why I no longer have a job and won’t be staying at my apartment for the next month will be easier without you there.”

Fallon turned to exit the double doors of his office, Erik beat her to the knob and swung the door open for her instead. Now she had to walk past him on her way out. Her dress, a short-sleeved wiggle dress made of velvet fabric in a deep cranberry color, was little protection from the searing heat the came pouring off of Erik’s body. The man radiated warmth. Fallon almost wanted to lean into him, her dress offered little protection from the cold but the office was too warm for her to keep her coat on.

Together Erik and Fallon walked the two flights of stairs down to Events. On the landing, Duncan and Nicole stood facing the doorway to the Events office space. No doubt looking for her or discussing her. Actual dread pooled in Fallon’s belly. She felt almost nauseous with tension. Just as she was about to chicken out, turn on her heel and fly back upstairs to the safety of Erik’s office, Erik called out to her friends.

“Duncan! Nicole!” His booming voice echoed across the marble staircase, drawing the attention of not just Duncan and Nicole, but everyone in the Events office. Her friends’ faces were frozen in polite, confused smiles. Their eyes darted between Fallon, small and quiet carrying two boxes of pastries in her arms, to Erik and his man-bun.

Fallon felt her body walk towards her friends, keeping pace with Erik surprisingly who walked like a man trying to stake his claim. She wished she was walking next to anyone but him, hell she’d rather crawl next to anyone but him. But it was too late. Her friends had seen her, they were looking at her. All Fallon could do now was go through with her plan to bribe them with sweets and hope they didn’t make too big a deal out of it.

“Hey guys,” Fallon croaked. Nicole’s red lips were wiggling as she fought off laughter. She wouldn’t hesitate to laugh at Fallon any other time but with Erik standing with them Nicole would be on her best behavior. At least Fallon could count on some miracles.

Duncan glanced between Fallon and Nicole, before settling on Erik. His blue eyes glowed with humor but he held out a hand to Erik, “Hey boss,” When Erik gripped his hand lines of tension appeared around his eyes.

Fallon cleared her throat before sending an elbow into Erik’s side, hard enough to make the bigger man grunt and release his hold on Duncan’s hand. The interaction, sadly, did not go unnoticed by Nicole. Who’s eyebrows had joined up with her mouth in a battle of wiggling.

“So, we gettin’ lunch?” Erik clapped and rubbed his hands together with feigned excitement. Fallon wanted to shoot another elbow into his ribs but he’d stepped away from her before she could summon the power needed to take him down.

“I guess we are,” Nicole answered for everyone. As a unit, the four of them moved to the ground floor of the office building.

Erik started towards the door to the street so Fallon hooked him by his arm and turned him towards the office cafeteria. Every department had their own break room but if you wanted to buy lunch the cafeteria was your best bet. Especially since everything in the city was overpriced and not actually worth the money you spent.

Erik had a strange look on his face when Fallon, Duncan, and Nicole settled into a table for three instinctively. Only after they were all seated in their usual seats, Duncan at the head, Nicole and Fallon sitting next to each other, did they realize they’d subconsciously made Erik the odd man out.

“Oh,” Fallon spoke softly. She searched the room for a table for four but came up with very few options.

Erik shrugged the awkward moment off without comment. Snatching a chair away from an empty two-seater, he sat close to Fallon’s side on the one open side of the table. He could have sat next to Duncan and had enough room to spread out and eat the lunch she’d packed him. Instead, he squeezed in on her space and ate at the corner.

Rolling her eyes, Fallon decided to ignore her former boss. If he wanted to be the weirdo in this situation she’d let him. It’d make it that much easier to remind her friends that she wasn’t suddenly Team Stevens. When she turned to focus on her friends, she found both of them already staring at her expectantly. They’d no doubt recognized her pastry boxes, she’d decorated them herself after all.

“First things first,” Fallon separated the boxes and handed them to their respective owners. Nicole made grabby hands for her lemon bars while Duncan reached into his box of donuts and put one into his mouth before taking the box from Fallon’s hands. There was a beat of silence as both Duncan and Nicole bit into their treats, then they both moaned so loud people looked over at their table in surprise.

Fallon beamed at the sound, “Do you like them?”

Neither of her friends spoke, they were too busy filling their mouths with their desserts. They both nodded and hummed in appreciation around each bite.

“I know it was shit of me to go awol yesterday but I was avoiding your reaction when I told you who I was with and where I was going.” Fallon glanced behind her at Erik. He was staring at her friends with fascinated disgust painting his features.

“Erik has family visiting him for the holidays and I agreed to let him pay me to be his stand-in girlfriend until they left.” Duncan choked on a donut when the words left Fallon’s mouth.

Nicole, sucking coconut cream icing off her fingers shrugged, “I get it. He’s rich and lonely you’re hot and poor, a tale as old as time.”

She made it sound so simple Fallon couldn’t help snorting and saying, “Beauty and the Beast,”

Nicole smirked at her. Erik, sitting next to her as well, had a more sour reaction.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His eyes flicked heatedly between Nicole and Fallon.

The smile dropped off Nicole’s face and her back went ramrod straight, “I didn’t mean anything by it, Mr. Stevens.”

Fallon wasn’t so easily intimidated. With an eye roll, she knocked her shoulder into Erik’s bicep, “Stop acting tough and finish your sandwich. No one’s saying anything you haven’t heard before. But,” Fallon interrupted Erik just as he opened his mouth, “It’s a moot point because nobody was talking about you in the first place. Nicole and I just have a mutual love of Disney Princesses. Sometimes we quote the movies in normal conversation.”

Erik backed down at her words, thankfully enough. If he tried to hurt or insult her friends she’d call their deal off. Yes, it meant walking away from $40,000 but no amount of money could get Fallon to allow someone to disrespect or hurt her friends.

“How does this arrangement work,” Duncan finally paused in his quest to inhale the donuts she’d made him. Cinnamon and sugar dusted the corners of his mouth.

“Basically I stay with him, play girlfriend for two weeks. We’ll be broken up by New Years.”

“Hey great, then you can make my New Year’s party!” Nicole’s eyebrows went up and her eyes went wide. As subtly as she could Nicole indicated towards Duncan, “D doesn’t have a date so I told him we’d go as a group.”

Fallon’s nose scrunched up with thought, “But you’re the hostess.”

Nicole shrugged innocently, “Well even if I am the hostess you can’t let Duncan go alone,” She looked towards Duncan and then back at Fallon meaningfully, “Can you?”

Fallon couldn’t understand what her friend was getting at. Nicole threw a New Year’s Eve Party every year because her apartment was the biggest of all of their mutual friends. It wasn’t really the kind of thing you brought a date to, their friend group wasn’t that special. Over the years, however, many of their friends have partnered off, either with each other or outsiders they then introduced to the group. Nicole, Duncan, and Fallon were the last singles in their friend group.

Needless to say, things were getting pretty awkward for all three of them.

“Where is it?” Erik’s voice sounded gruff and muffled around the mouthful of sandwich he spoke through. Fallon grimaced with disgust at his bad table manners.

Nicole’s eyes widened in surprise. She’d obviously forgotten he was there. “O-oh,” she stammered, “It’s at my apartment in the Fashion District. I’ll give you the address.”

And even though it sounded like that was the last thing she wanted to do, Nicole gave Erik her address.

The rest of lunch passed without any outbursts from Erik. Nicole and Duncan filled her in on what she’d missed in the day and a half since Erik ripped her job out from underneath her. Turned out the new assistant wasn’t as much of an enabler as Fallon was. When Mona showed up drunk the assistant actually made the aging planner do some work for once. Apparently, she couldn’t be fired because she’d been hired by the same company that hired Erik’s assistant.

No matter how much her friends enjoyed her treats, Nicole and Duncan couldn’t eat all of them in one sitting. After promising to wash and return her storage boxes when they finished the desserts, the three friends hugged goodbye and went their separate ways. Erik had plans to work out after lunch, so he dropped Fallon off at his office and then left for the gym.

For her part, Fallon kept busy with her knitting and hand sewing her skirt panels when she got tired of the rhythm of knitting. Usually, working with her hands soothed her and allowed her to clear her mind. However, this sewing session was plagued with thoughts of Erik and his behavior at lunch with her friends. Fallon couldn’t understand why he’d prefer they lie to her friends about their relationship.

He’d told her the whole reason he’d fired her was so he could hold up his end of the bargain of no-one finding out they’re together. Yet had basically announced their presence to the entire Events department. And he’d invited himself to Nicole’s New Years Eve Party, an event that would happen long after the terms of their contract would be satisfied.

Fallon couldn’t figure him out, and she hated the fact that she was even trying to. Erik was perfectly fine in the box in her head labeling him as an untouchable manwhore.


	9. Chapter 9

That night, Fallon and Erik once again went their separate ways as soon as they entered his house. Erik locked himself in his home office so Fallon, for lack of anything better to do, went into the kitchen. He’d devoured the breakfast and lunch she’d made him without any comments about her taking over his kitchen.

From what Fallon observed he rarely, if ever, went into the kitchen on his own. He must have a housekeeper or maid to keep the fridge stocked and the appliances gleaming. Either way, his loss was her gain and she had a dozen recipes she was dying to try out on his top of the line stove.

First things first, Fallon changed out of her wiggle dress and into a pair of boxer briefs and a long t-shirt she’d taken to wearing as a sleeping gown. The makeup came off and the intricate hairstyle she’d curled her hair into was released and pulled up into a messy bun atop her head. It was a look one could see often when Fallon was bustling around her tiny kitchen at home.

After washing her hands and doing an ingredient inventory Fallon used chicken wings to start a broth for her rice. While that cooked away she carefully took out a whole chicken and soaked it in a buttermilk and salt mixture. Leaving that to marinate, Fallon preheated the oven and started cutting up all her vegetables.

Potatoes, carrots, Brussel sprouts, and asparagus all saw the sharp edge of Fallon’s knife. Once they were cut to a size she could work with, Fallon doused them with salt to draw out any residual moisture and set those aside so that they could go in after she put the chicken in the oven.

Once her main course was set up Fallon started working on dessert. She still had the ingredients for lemon sponge cake so she set out to make a lemon lava cake. Filled with a lemon flavored custard and topped with candied lemon peels. Just the process of making the sugar needed to coat the lemon peels took all of Fallon’s concentration. And even though no one but Erik and herself would see the end result, Fallon took the extra time needed to turn the candied lemon peels into spirals.

It was around the time that Fallon was checking on the chicken in the oven that Erik announced his presence in the other room. He was dressed as bummy as her in basketball shorts and a black hoodie as a top. He settled into a stool on the other side of the island Fallon was using as her main countertop. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It was his house, after all, he could be in the way wherever he wanted, who was she to judge.

“I knew you could cook but I didn’t know you could cook* cook.” Erik lifted a candied lemon peel waiting to be dusted with sugar off of a baking sheet. Fallon glared at his grubby hands touching her homemade candy.

“Yeah well,” She began slowly, “Some of us can’t afford to eat out whenever we want.”

It wasn’t a jab at him, directly anyway, but it served to remind Fallon of their differences in life. Erik was rich, dumb rich. The most money Fallon ever had to her name technically wasn’t even her’s yet. She’d seen the written and signed checks. Erik had made sure to mention it during their contract signing. But Fallon had been poor long enough to know better than to count money you couldn’t hold in your hands.

Erik reached for another lemon peel but Fallon got to him first. She smacked his sneaking fingers with the flat of her spoon and pulled the baking sheet out of his grasp. If he wanted to be childish then she’d just have to treat him like a child.

“So what did your friends think?” Erik sucked the stickiness from his fingers and maintained eye contact. It was the most unsexy thing he’d done since she’d met him and yet Fallon found her head empty of all thought at the sight of his thumb going into his mouth.

“Nicole totally understands that the only way I’d spend any extended time with you is if you’d paid me.” Fallon grabbed an oven mitt before turning and bending over to check the vegetables she had roasting in the stove. Behind her, she could hear Erik choking on something but she paid him no mind. Served him right for sneaking food behind her back.

“What about D,” Erik’s voice sounded rough from coughing.

Satisfied with the cooking process, Fallon shut the oven and turned to face Erik across the island, “Duncan is my friend and if he feels any kind of way about our arrangement it’s most likely because he’s like a big brother to me.”

Erik snorted, “I’ve never seen a big brother stare at his sister’s ass the way D was checkin’ you.”

Fallon glared at Erik, “Not every man is like you, Erik. Some of them can have meaningful relationships with women without trying to get into her pants.”

“D wants to have a meaningful relationship with your panties, I know that much.”

“Don’t be a pig,”

“I’m not being a pig I’m being a man.” Erik gave Fallon a challenging look, “You ever seen one of them before?”

Fallon snorted when he stood from his stool, obnoxiously flexing his arms and puffing out his chest. “Can you choose a brand of masculinity that doesn’t expect me to believe one of my best friends is trying to sleep with me?”

“Okay, believe this then, ya girl Nicole? Is setting you up.” Erik moved with a speed Fallon had no time to counter and snatched another lemon peel spiral off the sheet. He’d popped into his mouth with a smile before Fallon could do anything.

“What are you talking about now?” Fallon frowned down at her homemade candies, how were they gonna last until the lemon sponges were done? Erik hadn’t made a dent in the pile but she knew if she left them unattended he’d finish the tray by himself.

Before Erik could answer, Fallon’s egg-shaped timer went off. She jumped into action taking the veggies out to cool. The chicken needed fifteen more minutes before she could take it out. Already she could see the fat of the buttermilk turning the chicken skin golden brown and delicious.

Just the smell filling the kitchen had Fallon smiling to herself in delight. Forget what Erik said. She knew her friends and she knew Duncan especially. He’d been like a brother to her for years. Erik spending one thirty minute lunch with him meant nothing in the face of their years of friendship.

Fallon had a family, in the strictest use of the term, but she couldn’t say she was actually close to any of them anymore. None of them had her current number and she’d deleted her Facebook after high school.

As far as she was concerned Duncan and Nicole were her family, nothing Erik could say would change her mind about them.

Fallon took her time decorating Erik’s dining table while waiting for the chicken. Even though it was just going to be the two of them, Fallon used place settings and napkin holders that she found hidden away in one of Erik’s many cabinets. It was harder to create a Christmas appropriate theme since everything Erik owned was in different shades of black, white, gray, and of course, gold.

Fallon made up for it by queuing up her Christmas playlist. Wiggling her hips to the sultry voice of Bing Crosby Fallon set the table with their dishes and the sides. The chicken was set last, still steaming in the center of the table.

Erik sat at one end of the table so Fallon took the seat directly to his left. Without being asked, she served them both. She filled their plates with food and gave Erik a little extra because he asked for it. When she cut into the chicken the chicken was so moist it splattered the table with its juices.

In a word, the bird was perfect.

Erik took a vicious bite out of one chicken leg and then cursed, “Fuck!”

Fallon’s heart pounded, “Is something wrong with the chicken?”

Erik couldn’t answer, he was too busy stuffing more chicken into his mouth and moaning like a man possessed. He looked like an animal, a predator as he gnawed on the chicken bones. Like he hadn’t eaten in years and was just now discovering what food tasted like. It was the sexiest thing Fallon had ever seen in her life.

He attacked his plate, shoveling food into his mouth so fast Fallon would think he couldn’t taste it if not for the most sinful moans slipping from his shiny lips. When it looked like his plate was beginning to thin out, Fallon added a second and third helping. Erik nodded his thanks, his mouth still too full to talk.

Fallon had to remind herself to eat her own food before it got cold. She could have watched him eat all day. It was only the reminder of her own hunger that moved her to start picking at her plate. They ate in a silence only interrupted by the noises Erik made as he devoured the meal placed in front of him. The meal was over when Erik pushed his plate away from him and sat back in his chair to rub at his stomach.

“I hope you didn’t eat yourself sick,” Fallon collected both their plates to bring back with her to the kitchen.

Erik patted his gut consideringly, “I can make it work, hit me with it.”

Fallon loaded a plate with three lemon lava cakes and placed them in front of Erik. For herself, she stuck with hot chocolate. She watched attentively as Erik picked the sugared lemon peels off the tops of the cakes and popped all three into his mouth. When his fork cut into one of the cakes Fallon held her breath in anticipation. She needn’t have bothered, lemon flavored custard pooled out onto Erik’s plate just as it should.

“Wow,” Erik smiled like a little kid at the dessert. Fallon beamed at his response.

While Erik tucked into his cakes, Fallon finally asked the question that had been in the back of her mind since he’d approached her to be his pretend girlfriend.

“So how bad are they,” Fallon touched the tip of her finger to the rim of her mug, “What’s worth a $40,000 rent-a-girlfriend?”

Erik’s jaw clenched and Fallon worried he was gonna lash out of her. The last time she’d pushed at one of his invisible boundaries he’d been a pain in the ass. In one smooth moment, the tension in his frame relaxed. Erik took his time spooning more of the lava cake into his mouth.

“My Aunt has been like a mother to me all my life. She took in this kid that wasn’t hers and treated him the same way she treated her other children.” Erik smirked without meeting her eyes. Or maybe Fallon was wrong. The small smile on his lips looked more wistful than sardonic.

“She wants me to get married because she wants to know I’m taken care of. She and my uncle are back in Africa with the rest of the fam. I’m the only bird that flew the coop.”

Fallon smiled at the imagery of a bird Erik, his locs and gold chain still in place, leaving the only home he’d ever known. She understood better, why his aunt wanted to see him paired off so bad. Erik did a pretty good job of taking care of himself, he was fit and ate well, plus his house was clean. But one night in this place and Fallon knew that his house wasn’t a home. She also knew that, aside from her co-workers, Erik didn’t entertain many people in his life.

If she were his aunt, she’d feel better knowing he had someone looking after the needs many men didn’t even know they were neglecting.

“What about your uncle?” Fallon asked over the sound of Erik scraping his empty plate with his fork.

“My uncle is a very important man who has a lot of people counting on him.” That’s as deep as Erik chose to explain it.

Fallon allowed him to pull away from her questioning. He offered to wash the dishes but she told him she’d do them herself. She didn’t like washing dishes as much as she liked making them but the process was almost meditative for Fallon. Scrubbing at pans and polishing silverware allowed her to slip deep into her mind with ease. Washing dishes would be the perfect chance for her to really think over what Erik had just told her.

Erik wandered into the living room while Fallon set in on cleaning up the mess she made. He let her know he’d be working late in his office after he played on his game system, yet when Fallon turned around to ask if he wanted to split the wishbone with her she found him snoring on the couch. It was the most adorable sight she’d ever seen. She wanted to put a blanket over him but being a man who lived alone Erik didn’t have an abundance of cozy things like throw blankets or couch pillows.

That was something Fallon could actually help with. After cleaning up her mess in the kitchen and storing the leftovers, she went into her room and took out a second set of knitting needles and soft gray yarn. She figured Erik was about six foot give or take a few inches and then set out to make a blanket he could curl up under comfortably.

Not because she actually cared whether he got cold on the couch at night. The man was grown and he had rooms filled with beds that were covered in blankets. If he wanted to shiver on that leather couch Fallon would be the last one to stop him. Still, she thought as she settled into her knitting rhythm, it’ll look good to his family that I’m at least trying to take care of him.

Fallon couldn’t make that make sense in her own head so she focused on her memory of a yarn pattern she had memorized from her first knitting projects to start Erik’s blanket.


	10. Chapter 10

Despite clocking out like a lightweight before 10:30, Erik was still snoring on the couch when Fallon got up that morning. She was able to shower, moisturize her hair, and start making breakfast before Erik was awake enough to wipe the crust from his eyes. He looked almost adorable splayed out on his couch the way he was.

The fact that she actually found the sight of him cute at all had her tip-toeing in fluffy reindeer socks around his place.

To be honest, Fallon felt a little awkward after her brief moment of insanity last night. She knew she wasn’t actually attracted to Erik. The man was gorgeous but Fallon had always prided herself on liking a man for his actions not his looks. That brief spot of arousal while watching him eat her food was just a fluke. A blip on the radar, right up there with the other morning when she’d seen him without his shirt in their office.

That was the most embarrassing part. The only other person who knew of Fallon’s weird attraction to the sight of a man really going in on plate was Nicole. She couldn’t explain it to herself let alone her best friend. It was just something about a man enjoying a meal, filling himself yet always having room for more, that really did it for her.

The sight of a man, cheeks filled with food, hands dirty from using his hands the way anyone else would use a knife or fork riled her up. Fallon nearly dated a guy for two months because he ate everything she cooked him and asked for thirds. By the end of the relationship, he gained five pounds and Fallon finally managed to master pie crust.

Erik approached the kitchen with the sleepy scowl of a person who slept too hard and wasn’t ready to be awake. Fallon poured him a cup of coffee. Without a word he accepted the mug and took a cautious sip at the hot beverage.

His eyes widened comically, “Oh my god,” Erik brought the mug up to his face again and took a deeper sip. “Fuck!”

Fallon turned to check on the cheddar and chive biscuits she had baking away in the oven, hiding her smirk at the same time. Coffee wasn’t something she drank because the caffeine messed with her anxiety. Yet back when she’d lived on coffee but couldn’t afford to go to a coffee shop Fallon had figured out the secret to the perfect cup of coffee.

It required an amount of work Fallon had never found worth it since she couldn’t drink the good stuff anymore, but obviously, Erik really appreciated it.

“I should have paid you to be my girl months ago,” Erik sipped at his mug and moaned, “I didn’t know you could throw down like this.”

His words were the perfect opening for Fallon to say, “Speaking of paying,” she smacked away the wandering hand Erik was sneaking towards the racks of thick cut bacon she had resting at the other end of the counter.

“Don’t sneak! Let me make you a plate,” Fallon scolded.

She filled Erik’s plate with eggs, bacon, and fresh from the oven biscuits. Erik watched her move around the kitchen with hunger filled eyes. He started reaching for the plate on the counter before she could even hand him a fork.

Just as his fingers touched the tip of the plate, Fallon moved it out of his reach. With the counter between them, not even Erik’s dumb long arms could reach the plate.

“Man stop playin’,”

Fallon giggled at the desperate look in his eyes, “Because of you I no longer have a job. We agreed to $40,000, twenty when your family got here and twenty when they left.”

Plucking a piece of bacon off his plate Fallon bit into the thick, salty-sweet meat and enjoyed the satisfying crunch that followed. She’d been right to make candied bacon, it worked well with the savoriness of the cheddar chive biscuits.

Erik actually growled at the sight. She knew he couldn’t be that hungry, he’d eaten the majority of the bird she’d cooked him last night. Not to mention the three lemon lava cakes he put away afterward like it was nothing. The man acted like he’d never had a home cooked meal before.

“I can’t go on like this! You’re running out of groceries and I would really like to have money so I can do more than knit and cook all day.” Fallon pointed the bacon in her fingers at Erik, “You changed the terms of our agreement first so now it’s my turn.”

Erik’s eyes didn’t leave the plate in her hand when he reached into his hoodie pocket and pulled out his wallet. A quick shuffle through the billfold and then Erik threw a black AmEx on the counter.

“Use that to buy whatever groceries you want. When I go to work today I’ll stop by the bank and set up your money,” Fallon was too shocked by the victory, and how easily he handed over his credit card to say anything.

Erik, of course, didn’t have any problem speaking up, “Can I have my food now?”

Fallon slid the plate across the counter to his waiting hands. As a reward for good behavior, she gave him two extra pieces of bacon. Erik gobbled them up so fast Fallon had to snatch her hand back or risk losing a finger.

Once again, he ate like a man starved. One hand scooped forkful after forkful of egg into his mouth while the other held a biscuit already missing several bites. A pool of arousal settled low in Fallon’s gut at the sight of his cheeks bulging with food. When she noticed that he’d finished his biscuit she couldn’t help herself from placing two more on his plate.

However, Fallon drew the line at getting him some butter and jam. She couldn’t handle the sight of him slathering one of her biscuits with butter.

While Erik grubbed, she swiped his credit card off the counter and left him to his eating. She was going to her room to put it in her purse so that when she left for groceries she didn’t forget it. It wasn’t at all because the sounds coming out of his mouth had entered orgasmic.

“This fucking bacon,” Erik moaned around a mouthful of food. The sound of it sent shivers down Fallon’s spine and sent her literally running for the safety of her room.


	11. Chapter 11

Fallon had never grown up with disposable income. Even though she’d grown up with step-siblings who technically had three parents supporting them, Fallon had always struggled. Her mother had done her best to provide a stable home for her but after marrying Fallon’s stepdad their quality of life went way down. 

She went from having a mother who spent her last to make sure Fallon could afford to buy lunch at school to stealing milk and fruit from her school cafeteria so she had something to eat once she got home.

Armed with Erik’s credit card, her first stop was the crafts store. She needed a new bobbin for her sewing machine and needles since her last needle had snapped when she’d sewn her corduroy gingerbread skirt. While she was at it she picked up a few skeins yarn for the scarves she was knitting for the Toy and Coat Drive.

Coasting through the craft store had Fallon’s mind buzzing with ideas for Christmas decorations. It was still only the first week of December but already Fallon was noticing the houses in Erik’s neighborhood setting out the first layers of their Christmas decorations. It made Erik’s drab but manicured front yard look boring and drab in comparison. 

Fallon decided his house could use a little Christmas spirit.

Hell, Erik could use a little Christmas spirit. When he wasn’t being an asshole to her he was praising her for her cooking ability. Fallon doubted that she could do much about his dickhead attitude, but she knew for a fact that she could do something about his house.

With that thought in mind, Fallon stretched her fingers around the shopping cart handlebar and cracked her neck. If she was going to do this she needed to limber up. Erik’s house would need the full force of Fallon’s decorating talents to look even close to ready for the Christmas season. She didn’t stop to think if Erik would have a problem with her decorating. If he didn’t want her to make changes he shouldn’t have given her his credit card.

Or fired her from her job with no notice.

Fallon shopped until her feet hurt and then shopped some more because she had big plans for their dinner tonight. She called an Uber to drive her from the craft store to the farmer’s market, not looking at the price of it all because honestly, it was enough to make her sick. In five hours Fallon spent more money than she’d ever owned at one time. She even overtipped the Uber driver for helping her carry over a dozen bags into Erik’s house.

What was a $13 compared to the $50 she’d spent getting from the city to Erik’s neighborhood?

Erik still wasn’t home when Fallon got back. Perfect, she could decorate most of the inside of the house while dinner cooked. While he gorged himself on roast beef and potatoes with roasted asparagus dusted with sea salt, he couldn’t bitch at her about tinsel and Christmas stockings. The entire meal could cook away in the oven without needing to be watched over. Fallon had three hours until Erik returned from work, she had to work fast.

Pulling on an apron Fallon put on her Christmas playlist and was immediately greeted by the sultry voice of Eartha Kitt singing Santa Baby. The song put a smile on her face and sent her dancing around the kitchen as she put away groceries and set out the ingredients she’d need for dinner. As a kid, this had been one of her favorite Christmas songs. Even though she couldn’t sing Fallon would belt this song out, much to the annoyance of anyone within fifty feet of her.

Fallon salted her roast and then set it to the side to rest while the oven preheated. For her potatoes, she scrubbed the skins and then quartered them before salting them too and putting them in the same pan as the roast. She filled the space around the roast with the most aromatic ingredients she could find in Erik’s kitchen. 

Rosemary, crushed garlic, quartered onions, thyme all went into the party she had going on in the pan. As soon as the oven reached the perfect temp, Fallon slid the roast inside. Then set a timer on her phone for the roast and to remind her to put the asparagus in the oven for the last twenty-five minutes of cooking time.

The food was cooking away, the sound of TLC singing Sleigh Ride rang throughout the house, and Fallon started decorating. She’d spent a month planning the Christmas at the Gingerbread House for the Events office yet she came up with a theme for Erik’s house after spending ten minutes comparing two differently sized mason jars. Erik’s house had been decorated with black, gold, and white colors everywhere. It was just common sense to take what some decorator had already given her

The main living room was filled with dark furniture. The walls were a simple white and filled with African masks and artworks. All in all, it worked well with Fallon’s vision of a King Midas Christmas. With the supplies, she bought Fallon handmade gold and silver decorations to hand along the entertainment center holding all of Erik’s DVD’s, video games, and knickknacks. A gold and silver leafed wreath was placed on the front door, the one bit of outdoor decoration she could make on such short notice. 

After checking the roast. Fallon set glass jars filled with gold and silver baubles on every available surface. Once she’d placed the asparagus in the oven, she hung up gold and silver snowflakes in every doorway.

Her efforts were simple, and with more time she could add to it, but the little touches of herself she added to Erik’s ultra-masculine house made Fallon smile. This place wasn’t her home and Erik turned out to be more of an ass than she’d initially anticipated, but nothing could make her smile faster than flexing her creativity in a constructive way.

Erik arrived home to the home smelling like a hot meal and the sounds of the Glee Cast cheerfully singing Jingle Bell Rock. He scrunched up his bulldog-like nose in confusion or distaste. Whichever emotion he had on his face immediately disappeared when Fallon passed the front door holding a full plate of food she’d assembled just for him. 

Whatever complaints he may have had about her decorations, and she just knew he had complaints, was pushed to the side in favor of following after Fallon like a puppy.

“That smells good,” he commented dumbly.

Fallon beamed at him, “Wait until you try dessert.”

Erik’s eyes turned hungry, “You make more of those little lemon cakes?”

Turning back to the kitchen Fallon held up a plate of brownies, “Even better!”

If she didn’t know any better she’d have thought Erik reached nirvana right then and there. He sat at the table and tucked into his food with the same vigor and passion he ate every meal. When Fallon set a glass of Hennessy she’d found in his liquor cabinet next to him he grunted what sounded like a thank you before going back to stuffing his mouth full of perfectly charred asparagus and juicy pieces of roast.

Fallon didn’t have much of an appetite after a day of crafting and cooking. Her fingers itched to get to her sewing machine. She had a couple of yards of fabric that would make beautiful pillowcases and a table runner that matched her golden Christmas theme perfectly. Still, she sat at the table with Erik anyway. 

Not because she wanted to watch him eat. She only wanted to hand him back his credit card.

“Keep it,” He said around a chunk of potato, “The bank’s gonna take a few days to prepare the money for you.” Erik rolled his eyes, “If you need to buy anything else you might as well hang on to it.”

His generosity made Fallon uncomfortable but she had common sense. The man obviously didn’t care about her spending his money so why should she?

Fallon served Erik seconds and thirds, and when she gave him his dessert she made sure to microwave the brownie so it was warm before topping it off with some vanilla ice cream. He went into raptures after the first bite. Moaning and rolling his eyes into the back of his head. Fallon had to clench her thighs together to control herself. Erik stopped just short of licking his plate clean.

Only because Fallon took the plate away from him before he could.

His glass was empty, his belly was full, and Erik looked seconds away from dozing off. Just as he had after the last meal she’d cooked him. Obviously, this was the perfect time to broach the subject of her redecorating.

“What do you think of the Christmas decorations?” Fallon called back to him from the kitchen. Tonight she didn’t really feel like washing dishes so after rinsing off the worst of the damage she filled the dishwasher and returned to the main room.

“‘S’nice,” was Erik’s gruff, sleepy reply.

“I was thinking it would make it seem like we lived together more believable.”

“Uhuh,” Erik’s eyes were slipping closed right there at the table.

“I was thinking of adding more when I had more time.” Fallon continued, “We could even get matching wrapping paper for the gifts we’ll put under the tree.”

Erik grunted, “Tree,” it didn’t sound like he liked that idea. Although it was hard to tell, his eyes were barely open as it was.

Fallon pouted, “Erik, we can’t have Christmas without a Christmas tree.”

Even at her poorest Fallon had always made sure to have a Christmas tree. Even if it was one of those little plastic trees that you put on a desk. She prepared to defend her right to a tree but found that she didn’t have to. Erik was slipping out of his seat and heading towards the hallway with all the bedrooms.

“Fine, we’ll get a tree. I have a few days off coming up. We’ll get it then or whatever.” Erik got as far as the couch and then changed directions. He plopped down on the leather sofa and tipped his head back. He was asleep in seconds.

Well, Fallon thought, that was easier than I thought it would be. If she’d known that the ticket to a manageable Erik was his stomach, she’d have shared the homemade cookies she made for her coworkers a lot sooner.

Before heading to bed, Fallon showered. She wrapped her hair and then grabbed one of the blankets she’d packed for Erik. It was a bit smaller than he needed but for a hastily knit blanket it was warm, soft, and as far as he was concerned, free. She found him snoring on the couch, still wearing all the clothes he’d worn on his way to work this morning, right down to the shoes.

Taking pity on him, Fallon readjusted his head so that he wouldn’t put too much strain on his neck while sleeping. She covered him in the blanket and then stepped back to get a good long look at him. In this state, dead to the world because of a food coma, he looked so young. The lines around his face were soft, leaving his warm cinnamon brown skin looking so soft. His lips, usually pursued in a condescending smirk or snarl, looked plump and soft and kissable.

Hold up, kissable?

Let’s not forget this was Erik Stevens here. The guy who’d fucked good women out of good jobs at least six times. The guy who was literally paying her to lie to his family on one of Fallon’s favorite holidays. Until he’d asked her out a few days ago, he hadn’t even acknowledged her existence. And he for sure hadn’t been all sunshine and lollipops since they’d decided to coexist.

Look at you, Fallon scolded herself, you start making one blanket for the guy and now you’re going all soft for him. Get your ass to bed. She shook her head of any nice or pleasant thoughts. Or at least, she shook her head of nice and pleasant thoughts about Erik. She took care to flip off all the lights except one, just in case Erik woke up in the middle of the night, and then retreated to her bedroom.


	12. Chapter 12

Weirdly enough settling into a routine with Erik was easier than Fallon anticipated. The man was a creature of habit. He went to work at the same time, worked out at the same time, and if fell into a food coma before 10:30 every night. She didn’t think the sleep coma was normal for him though. He’d begun complaining about his neck and back after a week of sleeping on the couch.

“Why don’t you go lay down in your bed?” Fallon suggested over the sound of Erik scraping the bowl clean with his spoon. She’d made a crockpot beef stew and dinner rolls for dipping that night. Hearty and warm, perfect for the sudden cold snap LA was experiencing at the moment.

“Nah I’m good, I got some work to do tonight.” Erik set his bowl down. His spoon couldn’t get what was left of the stew inside and Fallon felt like Erik was weighing the pros and cons of licking the bowl.

“Oh! Have you finished planning the Toy and Coat Drive? Did you contact the vendors to confirm their donations?”

If Fallon was still at the Center she’d be making the calls for Mona. Nicole and Duncan were too busy with their own events to bother with watching Mona and reporting to Fallon, so she felt bereft. Like a single mother so used to having her children around that the second she gets a day off, she doesn’t know what to do with herself.

It had been fun decorating Erik’s place. It challenged Fallon, forced her to move out of her comfort zone to include Erik’s uber-masculine house in her Christmas dreams. For his part, Erik didn’t complain. Probably because he didn’t really care about stuff like that. Either way, the inside was as festive as Fallon could make it without literally setting up fake icicles and a tree.

“The vendors are all set up but the fucking venue flaked.”

Erik’s eyes rolled and his face looked vaguely murderous. It relaxed when Fallon set a plate of sugar cookies in front of him. They were in a variety of shapes, a mix of trees and Santas and candy canes. Using a little food coloring and royal icing Fallon created cute designs on top. Erik wouldn’t care if his sugar cookie actually looked like a candy cane or not but it made her feel good to do it anyway.

While Erik tucked into his plate of cookies Fallon set up a cozy corner for herself on Erik’s leather couch.

“Let me guess, you went to Mona and asked her to find another venue but she lost her list of vendors and venues and her assistant didn’t know where to look either.” Fallon spread out her favorite blanket and pillow before curling up against the arm of the couch.

Erik grubbed on cookies but paused long enough to grunt out, “She told me it was too late to find a venue anyway since the Drive is only ten days away.”

Fallon rolled her eyes. She was right, of course. Most venues in the city were either already booked or didn’t have the resources they’d need to throw the Drive without a hitch. There were a few places who’d scramble for the right client but Mona had been burning bridges since ‘08. Bounced checks, trashed venues, and just general bitchiness on Mona’s part had given her a reputation for being difficult to work with.

Any venue out of the city was a no-go because the whole point of the Drive was to keep it as local as possible. They were committed to benefiting the community. Most of the people helped by the Center didn’t have cars or if they did couldn’t afford the gas needed to travel outside their usual radius of home, work, and school.

Canceling the Drive was out of the question as well. For the past five years, the Center had given every kid they could a nice jacket, gloves, and shoes for the colder, wetter months in California.

There were a lot of kids who relied on their winter gear until the next winter because their parents couldn’t afford anything better.

Fallon picked up the tv remote and began navigating Erik’s Netflix account. “Just have the Drive in the Center. The cafeteria is big enough to hold the main event and then for fun, you can take the kids on a tour of the Center. You’d give the parents a break and allow the children to see all the hard work we’re doing for them. It might even boost sign-ups for the weekend and summer camps we-…er…you throw every year.”

Silence reigned from the dining table. Not even the sound of Erik munching on cookies could be heard. Worriedly, Fallon turned to stare at Erik, checking to see if she’d somehow hit an invisible nerve without realizing it. Instead, she found Erik staring at her with a strange look in his eyes.

“That’s actually not a bad idea,”

Fallon rolled her eyes and then refocused on the tv, “Gee thanks.” the sarcasm dripped from her words.

Erik finished up his dessert while Fallon watched the holiday episodes of the Great British Bake Off in rapturous delight. A baking competition about Christmas? Yes, please!

She could hear Erik moving around the house for a bit but Fallon paid him no mind. The Holiday version of Bake Off was new and Erik’s tv was so high definition the food on the screen looked good enough to eat. She could actually see how golden the crust was on the pastries, how awful curdled custard looked, and how airy the whip in the stand mixer was.

It was a baking addict dream and Fallon had utilized Erik’s Netflix and Hulu to get her fix with all sorts of cooking and baking shows.

So engrossed in her show Fallon lost track of Erik. Him suddenly plopping onto the couch cushion after jumping over the back of the couch had her clutching her blanket to her chest in shock. Erik smiled at her from his side of the couch, the ass, and then proceeded to wiggle her out of the comfortable spot she’d found on the couch so he could stretch out comfortably.

Did she say ass, she meant douchebag. His couch was admittedly big enough for three Erik’s to stretch out on yet Erik still managed to knock into Fallon’s comfort zone with his widespread thighs.

Fallon edged closer to the arm of the couch with a huff, then tried to refocus on her show. Noel Fielding was being adorable and zany, Paul Hollywood looked stern and kind of daddy-ish with his ice blue eyes. They were judging the technical bake and at least eight contestants didn’t know how to make the recipe they were given.

“What’s this?” Erik talked through a mouthful of….cookies? Where had those come from?

“The Great British Bake Off Christmas Special,” Fallon spoke sharply, hoping to signal to him that she wasn’t in the mood to talk.

Of course, Erik decided he wanted to talk anyway, “Yo is that nigga in a dress?” He was referencing Noel.

Fallon smirked, “I’ve seen him in worse,”

She could see Erik look sharply at her from the corner of her eye, “Worse than a dress?”

“Try elephant trunk underwear,”

Blessedly, Erik didn’t say anything else.

Watching one of her favorite shows with Erik was surprisingly not bad. He accepted the premise of the show easily. The weird antics of Noel and Sandi didn’t make him laugh. But he did snort whenever a contestant went nuts for a handshake from Paul. He was silent with awe like Fallon during the Showstopper.

When the episode ended and the credits rolled Erik shifted beside her, “Is this where you learned to cook?”

“Nah,” Fallon picked at a loose thread in her blanket, “In my house if you didn’t cook for yourself you didn’t eat.”

She was too afraid to look Erik in the eye after saying that. It’s not like she was ashamed of her upbringing. Everything she’d gone through had made her strong enough to get where she was now. Fallon had survived worse than learning how to cook at seven years old. She did, however, dread the questions that usually came afterward. It happened every time she hinted that her life was less than magical.

Everyone saw the handmade outfits and the baking and knitting and just assumed that Fallon had some black middle-class upbringing. Her reality was so far from that. Fallon thought her boujee middle-class aunty was one of the richest people in the world. In reality, her husband worked for the government and had really good benefits.

But that was rich where Fallon came from.

Erik was silent for a moment, “Do you want to talk about it?” It didn’t sound like he cared either way. In fact, when Fallon peeked up at him she found him staring fixedly at the screen. Another episode of Bake Off was queuing up.

Like Fallon, Erik was dressed for comfort and bed. His gray sweatpants were baggy and his thick black hoodie made his fit physique into a hint of his true size and power. Even his hair was down, the locs flopped freely and were all pushed in the same direction on his head. His eyes looked tired, there were bags there and the lines on his face looked tense. 

He was sleeping better than Fallon did every night but the upcoming Drive, along with his other responsibilities, must be weighing on him heavily.

“Not really,” Fallon refocused on the tv.

Erik nodded once and then together they watched the episode in silence.


	13. Chapter 13

Fallon woke up curled into a tight ball on the couch, her blanket wrapped around her and her arms pillowed under her head. At the other end of the couch, Erik rested with his head tilted against the back of the couch. Her feet were in his lap. His large, warm hand was wrapped around her ankle.

The screen in front of them had timed out into a slideshow of screensavers. Although it was hard to tell what the pictures were because of the bright morning glare coming from the floor to ceiling windows. In almost ten days of living here, Fallon hasn’t fallen asleep on this couch once. Of course, the first time she did Erik was the first thing she noticed when she woke up.

Moving carefully so she wouldn’t wake him, Fallon pulled her ankle out of his grip and unwrapped herself from her blanket. The clock above the stove looked like 7: something so she headed to her room to start her morning routine.

When she entered her bedroom Fallon noticed a blinking light on her phone. She didn’t like to be on her phone past a certain time at night so Fallon usually put her phone on DND and left it to charge. Making sure to grab it before heading to the bathroom, Fallon unlocked her phone and looked at the first notification.

**Nicole: Girl! Why didn’t you warn me about Stevens crashing lunch**

**Nicole: Also when can you see me to start fitting me for my new year’s dress**

**Nicole: you’re still making it right.**

It went on like that for a while. Nicole knew about Fallon’s late night phone policy so she’d probably sent twenty messages out of boredom. They both knew Fallon would respond as soon as she saw them, usually early in the morning while Nicole slept in late. Then they’d meet in the middle around noon for a two-hour text or call session.

**Fallon: all my equipment is at Erik’s. gotta come here 😂😂😂**

**Fallon: he came to lunch just to get under my skin. he knew i didn’t want him there so he invited himself to be an ass**

Which was true. After trying to convince her that Duncan was trying to get with her and that Nicole was his wing-woman, Erik hadn’t mentioned her friends again. Fallon wondered if he remembered inviting himself to Nicole’s New Year’s Eve Party. She wouldn’t remind him for all the money in the world. Their cohabitation has been going well so far, that didn’t mean they should try to be friends afterward.

Thirty minutes later while brushing out her freshly straightened locks, Fallon heard the notification with Nicole’s reply. She was satisfied with the final result of her hairstyle. The loose curls floated around her shoulders held away from her face with butterfly clips she’d made herself with polymer clay and acrylic paint.

**Nicole: u think im scared to go to Big Bad Wolf’s house? as long as you cover me for gas im down.**

With a smile, Fallon started typing out her reply.

**Fallon: I’ll do you one better**

**Fallon: send me your address.**

An hour later Nicole pulled up to Erik’s house with her head sticking out the car window.

“Bitch why didn’t you tell me I was coming to the boonies! Or that our boss is like, old money rich?” Nicole scrambled to get out the Uber.

Fallon’s friend wasn’t much taller than herself, but she more than made up for it with her goddess-like figure. Nicole had more hips, dips, and curves than Fallon could ever dream of. She was like a fertility figure, just voluptuous and gorgeous. Her skin was a rich honey brown and you never saw her without a fresh set of braids or faux locs.

Today it was goddess locs. Fallon raced into the front yard to meet her friend half way and she got a face full of hair when they hugged. It was so weird going days without seeing her best friend’s face. She savored their hug before excitedly leading Nicole into the house.

“Erik left to go to the gym so he won’t be back until after lunch. I made tea and cookies and those little cakes you like.” Fallon led Nicole to her bedroom.

In the corner, she had her sewing machine set up and a dress form she’d splurged on at the craft store. A tray on the table next to the armchair in the corner held her trusty mint blue teapot, a couple mugs from Erik’s cabinet, and a plate of treats. Nicole wasted no time stuffing a Victoria sponge into her mouth. The moan she let out had Fallon beaming as she poured her a cup of tea.

“Here try this is a blend I picked up from the tea guy in the mall,” she carefully handed Nicole the mug of tea.

Shopping was slowly becoming a hobby of Fallon’s thanks to the freedom she was allowed with Erik’s credit card. It got to the point that even the bank was trying to figure out what was going on. Erik didn’t care. The level of trust he allowed her with his money was humbling. Although it did leave her wondering just how much money he actually had. It had to be a lot otherwise the amount Fallon spent in groceries alone would have him snatching the credit card back.

“Oh that’s good,” Nicole sipped at her mug carefully, “Is that?” Sip, “Peppermint?”

Fallon nodded, “It’s their Christmas blend! They have a whole pack with a mix of flavors that taste so good,”

Taking out her measuring tape, she began taking down Nicole’s measurements in her notebook. They’d already chosen her dress, an off the shoulder swing dress that fell just at the knee. It was a pattern Fallon had worked with before for a summer dress still hanging in her closet.

“That’s cute, where’d you get it,” Nicole held still for the measuring. As still as she was though, her eyes saw everything. Fallon knew she was searching for something. Anything that would give her a reason to talk about their boss.

“Thanks but you know this is old. I wore it at the cookout the Center threw for that all black mathlete team.” The play set was a simple blue and white top matched with blue high waisted shorts that made her stubby legs look shapely and presentable.

Once her measurements were written down Nicole began wandering around Fallon’s room. It was admittedly much bigger than her entire apartment but she didn’t see anything all that interesting about it. She’d made as much of a mark as she could on the blank space of this bedroom but it was still very much a guest room. There was nothing she could do, short of painting the walls and replacing the furniture, to change that.

“What’s this?” Nicole held up an unfinished gray mass of yarn.

“Oh that, that’s Erik’s blanket.”

The words came out so easily Fallon didn’t register Nicole’s stunned silence until her friend began giggling.

“You’re making him a blanket? Isn’t it a little early in the relationship?” Nicole snickered. She picked up the blanket, it would take Fallon another week and a half to finish it. Usually, a project like this took months but Fallon cut the time in half by using a thicker yarn and a simple pattern.

Fallon rolled her eyes, “I should have never told you that,”

Back when she’d first decided to learn how to knit Fallon had learned not to knit sweaters for significant others unless you were sure the relationship would last. It was part superstition part practicality because a shit ton of work went into making a sweater. But a blanket was nothing like making a sweater. Case in point, last year Fallon had made Nicole a hot pink blanket they liked to cuddle under doing movie night.

“Aww but if you didn’t I couldn’t tease you,” Nicole shook Erik’s blanket out.

Snatching the unfinished project from her friend’s hands, Fallon pointed Nicole in the direction of the sewing machine.

“Go over there and look at fabric swatches. You should know better than to tease the woman in charge of your outfit for your party,”

Nicole made a face at her but did as Fallon asked her to. All talk of Erik ceased and they made a few more adjustments to the pattern Fallon would be using as a guide to assemble the dress. That took Fallon a while, during which Nicole snacked on cookies and cakes and filled her in on all the goings on at the Center.

“Bitch, your roommate went in there and served Mona in front of everybody. He’s been dropping by Events way more lately. If you weren’t already living with him I’d think he was doing it to see you,”

Nicole’s brown eyes went wistful, “It was beautiful. She’s been on her toes all week. First, you left which basically threw the office into a frenzy because no one knows where anything is without you. Now, Steven’s is breathing down her neck to make the Drive happen.”

Fallon couldn’t hide the smile on her face behind her mug quick enough. She didn’t want the Center to suffer because of her absence but knowing that her not being there is actually affecting people, most of all Mona, made her happy. Yes, she enjoyed baking and decorating and organizing but at a certain point if she’s doing all that it would feel nice to be more appreciated.

That was one of the things she enjoyed about living with Erik. He wasn’t the type to say thank you in so many words but he made her look forward to feeding him or decorating his house because of his reaction alone. When she started playing silver and gold snowflakes on the walls or came home with a white and gold plate set he called them dope then proceeded to murder a slice of pie right on that very plate.

It was the little things, you know?

“Seeing him talk down to a woman old enough to be his mother was funny as hell but it made you worry about you,” Nicole reached out and placed a hand on Fallon’s arm to stop the notes she was taking in her notebook.

“Is he treating you well? You can tell me, you know that? You can tell me anything,”

Nicole’s big brown eyes looked so sincere in their concern for her that Fallon had to pull her into a hug. She’d never had a best friend growing up, never had friends that lasted longer than a semester. Since meeting her that first day at the Center Nicole had been nothing less than a true friend. A sister practically, who always had Fallon’s best interest in mind.

Squeezing her close Fallon whispered, “I’m honestly fine. I kind of like it here.”

At that, Nicole pulled out of her grip and stared at Fallon hard, “You…like it here?” The words couldn’t sound more disbelieving.

“Yes,” Fallon insisted. Nicole didn’t look convinced. “Honestly, he’s not that bad when he gets home. Aside from that first night, he mostly eats and works and then goes to bed.”

Nicole shook her head in disbelief, but it seemed that she chose to believe Fallon. For now.

“I guess that explains all the decorations. Is Erik aware you’re turning his house into a department store?” 

Fallon studiously went back to her notes, “Erik doesn’t care what I do as long as dinner isn’t late.” She snorted at the thought.

“Okay, now you’re giggling about him? Are you sure you’re okay here?” Nicole stared her down seriously. The effect was lessened by the fact that she had ice-blue frosting in the corner of her mouth and a half-eaten sugar cookie in her hand.

“I didn’t giggle,” Fallon defended, “I don’t giggle. I’m not a giggler.”

“Please, you giggle more than ‘Tickle Me Elmo’,”

“Oh, do you remember those-”

“When the battery would slowly die and then Elmo would randomly call out from your toy box in a near demonic, slow voice. Hell yeah, I remember ‘Tickle Me Elmo’. So does my therapist.” Nicole actually shuddered, the dramatic bitch.

Fallon fought off a smile, for Nicole’s sake, “I was gonna say how funny the commercials were but I don’t want to trigger any war flashbacks.”

Nicole sarcastically laughed at her but Fallon could see the relief in her eyes.


	14. Chapter 14

Fallon had just placed the stencil over her gingerbread dough when Erik suddenly went tense across the counter from her. It was Day One of his three days of off days yet he was still doing work. Only instead of barking orders into the phone at his office, he was doing it in his kitchen. Probably to bug Fallon but most definitely because he knew she was making a couple dozen cookies tonight.

Every year since working at the Center, Fallon has sold homemade cookies for her co-workers to give to family and friends. She always makes a batch just for her coworkers’ kids that are Santa themed. This year she was trying out a bunch of different flavors and preparation methods. In addition to the twenty-six batches she has to make for her coworkers, Fallon had plans to assemble a gingerbread house. It would be her first one in a while because gingerbread houses weren’t a lot of fun when you lived alone.

“What happened you accidentally cuss out the wrong person,” Fallon placed the first baking sheet into the oven.

“No,” Erik spoke carefully, “My aunt just texted me.”

Fallon stopped what she was doing. Cutting dough was more forgiving than cutting paper but she’d rather not mess up her straight lines because of her suddenly trembling hands.

“Oh,” The little word came out more casual than she felt.

“She wanted to confirm the dates they’d be visiting,” He paused to tap at his phone, “And ask if she should get you something for Christmas.”

“Well,” she said carefully, “You said we’re not gonna last that long anyway maybe it would be a waste to get me something.”

Her hands itched with the need to do something. Fallon placed her palms down on the counter to stop herself from kneading a new batch of dough. Now wasn’t the time for cookies.

Erik shot her a look that let her know how stupid he found her suggestion, “It would be suspicious if I asked her not to.”

Oh right, Fallon had forgotten that she was supposed to be playing his super serious girlfriend. As far as his family was concerned they’d been dating for six months. Why wouldn’t his aunt bring her a gift?

“We don’t even have our story straight yet. I’ve been here almost two weeks and we haven’t figured anything out.” Not that she was complaining.

It had been pretty nice living here, and not just because of the free reign Erik allowed her with his credit card and house. Today was the first day Erik had been home at the same time as Fallon for longer than it took him to eat dinner and fall asleep.

She had been able to keep to her regular routine of knitting scarves and Erik’s blanket with only minimal interference from the man of the house. Despite it being his off day Fallon had heard Erik in his office around the same time she got up to make herself morning tea. He’d only left his office twice, once for breakfast and then again for lunch.

After dinner, Fallon had anticipated him either knocking out on the couch or going back into his office. Instead, he’d set up his tablet and notebooks on the island she used as her workspace and proceeded to be in the way for the last hour of her baking.

“Don’t worry ‘bout all that, I got that handled.” Erik tapped a response to his aunt. After hitting send he fixed his brown eyes on Fallon.

“You right though, we need to get our shit together before they get here on the 20th.”

Fallon’s mouth went dry, “They’ll be here in five days!”

Five days wasn’t long enough. It had taken her the majority of two weeks to get used to Erik. And forget getting used to his family. The whole time they knew her she’d be lying about her feelings for Erik and basically putting on an act for them. An act that would last for days and involve a lot of heavy Erik interaction she just wasn’t ready for.

Fallon began shaking her head, “I don’t know Erik. I don’t think I’m ready,” looking down at her still trembling hands she shook her head faster, “Yeah no, I’m definitely not ready for that.”

Erik was only across the counter but he sounded miles away when he said, “Calm down. They not pullin’ up today,”

Shaking her hands out, Fallon stepped away from the counter. Only to bump into the stove behind her with a loud bang, “We don’t even have a tree! And I still haven’t gotten the lights up outside,”

She was being irrational. Fallon knew she was being irrational. She had, after all, agreed to do this. But that night back in the dark Events office seemed like it was years away. Fallon felt like a different person entirely. Back then she couldn’t stand Erik. Now, she was actually defending him to her best friend. She cooked him dinner every night and had to clench her legs together just to get through the meal.

Oh god, that was the wrong thing to think about. Yes, she was attracted to Erik. The man had a body like a god and the kind of devil may care smile that she had learned young to always run away from. And before, when he was her boss and she was just another faceless employee at the Center. But in five days time, she was expected to hold his hand, kiss him and touch him and let him touch her.

The thought occurred to Fallon that’d she also have to sleep in the same bed as him but her breath was already becoming erratic as it rattled out of her lungs.

“Fallon-”

“Oh my God, I haven’t even gotten your family a gift! What kind of girlfriend am I?” Fallon smacked her hand against her forehead.

Where would she even find time to get them a gift? Between the scarves for the Drive and Nicole’s dress, not to mention her own dress and Erik’s blanket, Fallon was all tapped out crafts wise. Her fingers were stiff enough from all the knitting and sewing. She didn’t think she could handle adding another project on top of that.

Erik cursed but Fallon was past hearing him. Without her permission, panic gripped her by her chest and sent her heart racing wildly. It was suddenly too warm in Erik’s kitchen. Too warm and too small. Fallon had the thought to take herself out of the situation. She knew this was a panic attack, she’d gone through enough of them to notice the signs, but it’s been years since an attack came in her so suddenly.

And in front of Erik worst of all.

Caught in the haze of her own panic, Fallon didn’t have time to text to Erik coming around the counter to stand I front of her and then lifting her up onto his shoulder. Carefully, he left the kitchen, stepped around the scattered craft supplies still littering the floor from her decorating this morning, and plopped them both onto the couch. He didn’t crowd her as he sat next to her, but he made his presence known by pressing their knees together and keeping a hand on Fallon’s chin so that she focused only on him.

“Take a deep breath, a'ight. In and out,” he mimicked his instructions and Fallon tried desperately to copy him.

The first breath she took was too deep, and it sent her into a coughing fit that made her desperate gasps for air worse. Fallon sobbed and coughed and gasped for air in equal measure.

“I c-can’t-”

“Don’t focus on what you can’t do. Focus on me. Now breathe, slower this time,” Erik grabbed Fallon’s hand and placed it on his warm, sculpted chest, “In and out, that’s all you gotta do. C'mon baby in and out,”

Fallon inhaled when Erik inhaled, and then let the breath out shakily. Her body was trying to force her to pant, but every time it happened Erik talked her down and reminded her that all she needed to do was breathe. Once she was breathing on her own, Erik let go of her chin and the hand he was using to press her palm against his chest.

“How did you know what to do? Most guys kind of stand there,” Fallon’s voice sounded hoarse, and her hand trembled when she moved from his chest and placed it into her lap.

Erik’s eyes studied her, then he answered, “After my pops died, I was real messed up. My aunt and uncle got me a therapist, but by then I’d been having them for two years.” His eyes crinkled with a wince, “I hid it from them at first. I thought they would send me away.”

At that moment, Fallon’s heart broke for Erik. Her chest ached. Mostly because of the panic attack, but the thought of a young Erik losing his father and then waiting to lose the family he had left made the soft parts of her soften even more, just for him.

Taking a deep breath, Fallon gave into her sentimental urges and pulled a stiff Erik into a hug. She wrapped her arms around his middle and placed her cheek against his hard warm chest. Hugging him felt like hugging a mannequin. His body was so hard and sculpted, Fallon questioned why anyone would want to be that fit. She’d take her soft, squishy body over his toned muscle any day.

Just as she was about to admit defeat and let go of him, Erik surprised her and put one hand on her back. He shifted enough so that hugging him didn’t have Fallon stretching awkwardly to reach him. His chin went to the top of her head, and his free arm rested on his knee.

This hug was the closet Fallon had ever been to Erik in all the years she’d known him. Up close, he smelled good. Through her shirt, Fallon could feel the coarse roughness of his hands. With only one arm around her, she could feel his strength. He was so warm that Fallon wanted to sink into him to stave off the chill she felt after having so much adrenaline coursing through her during her panic attack.

Eventually, reluctantly, Fallon pulled away. She still had cookies in the oven and she needed to chill her dough before cutting because the butter was probably too warm now. She felt so aware of Erik’s eyes on her as she moved but his stare didn’t bother her. The man had talked her through a panic attack, he could stare all he wanted as long as he didn’t try to make her talk about it.

As she made her way back to the kitchen Fallon paused and turned on her heel to face Erik. She almost jumped when she turned to find his eyes already on her but stopped herself in time.

“I’m gonna finish up in the kitchen, you should probably get some rest. Tomorrow we’re gonna go to the lot and pick out a tree.” Fallon smiled when Erik groaned.

“Man,” he groaned, “I still gotta do that?”

Without her permission, Fallon’s bottom lip poked out, “You promised!”

Erik glared at her for a long beat. Then he sighed, defeated. “Alright we’ll go look at trees,” his tone of voice was so monotone and his face so dejected Fallon did Something crazy. She skipped back to the couch and hugged Erik from behind.

“If you play your cards right you’ll get a treat at lunch tomorrow for all your hard work.” Fallon beamed at Erik’s scowl and then skipped her way back into the kitchen.

She could do this. She could show Erik affection, she could meet his family. And as for the gifts, she’s sure Erik will let her buy them something with his card. And to make up for the bought gift she could cook them a delicious meal every day that they stayed at Erik’s house. Fallon could do this. And if she couldn’t, at least she could count on Erik to be empathetic when she needed it.


	15. Chapter 15

Fallon slept horribly after her panic attack. It was the worst night of sleep she’d ever had. She was still up early the next morning, making her and Erik a hearty breakfast and brewing coffee. Without her usual level of energy to balance her, Fallon focused instead on everything she had to do to prepare for the arrival of Erik’s family. The decorations were coming along nicely but the outside of Erik’s house needed a lot of love and they had yet to get a tree.

By the time Erik wandered into the kitchen looking as grumpy as he always did early in the morning, Fallon had two travel mugs and three breakfast burritos wrapped in foil sitting on the counter. She was dressed as warmly as she could considering how temperamental California in December could be. When Erik raised his eyebrows at her attire (the man acted as if he’d never seen a Santa themed outfit before) Fallon took a deep breath and began the spiel she’d been working on all night.

“We have been wasting time here. Your family arrives in four days and we don’t have our story straight. Most importantly we don’t have a Christmas tree yet and you promised,” Fallon pouted when she mentioned the tree.

Erik groaned, “Can’t we just order that shit online or somethin’?”

Fallon’s pout deepened, “You promised,”

A beat passed where Erik and Fallon stared one another down. He was trying to intimidate her into letting him back out of his promise, but he chose the wrong one. Fallon was getting her Christmas tree, whether he went along with it or not.

“Fuck! Fine!” Erik cursed and snatched his two burritos off the counter, “We’ll get the damn tree. But you,” He pointed one burrito at her, “Stop that pouting shit. You think ‘cause you cute, you can just get your way. But I’m gonna stop that shit right now.”

Fallon ignored his words in favor of beaming, “Hurry up and get dressed. It’ll take us an hour to get to the tree lot and I don’t want to miss out on the good trees.”

Erik glared at her and took an angry bite of his burrito, “I’ll get dressed when I want to get dressed. This is my house you don’t run shit.” he grumbled around the food in his mouth.

 

Fallon shot him an indulgent smile and pushed his travel mug of coffee towards his side of the counter, “Today we’re gonna practice being a couple. I don’t want the first time we kiss to be in front of your family. I won’t be able to stop myself from laughing in your face.”

Erik growled, the sound sent a shiver up Fallon’s spine. He snatched his coffee off the counter and stomped his way back to his room. An hour later they were in his car, dressed warmly and listening to Mariah Carey sing her Christmas classics. He still had a scowl on his face, but the effect was lessened by the fact that every now and then he’d mouth the words to the song currently playing.

When they reached the lot Erik had barely stopped the car in a parking space as close to the lot as possible before Fallon was out the car and racing to the grouping of trees and families. The air smelled of pine and wet cement. The lot itself was enclosed in a parking lot. The ground was littered with wood shavings that created a soft squishing sound under Fallon’s boots.

She made it as far as the open gate leading into the tree lot when a hand suddenly pulled her back into a hard, warm, and unfortunately familiar body.

“Wait for me, baby,” The words were spoken in her ear in a slow, sultry timbre. It was mocking, Fallon had found that a lot of what Erik said sounded mocking, yet it still pulled her up short and wiped her brain clean of all thoughts of tree shopping.

So they were starting then, here was the time for practice. It was the perfect place. Public and filled with people Fallon didn’t know and would never see again. Perfect place or not Fallon had to stop herself from looking to see how other people were reacting to their closeness.

A glance toward the tree lot revealed a lot of wives giving Erik appraising looks. In his thickest coat, Erik still looked muscular and fit. A beanie covered most of his locs but a few escaped here and there, framing his handsome face.

The man himself had a mischievous glint in his eyes. His face made Fallon’s stomach flip-flop. He looked the part of a loving boyfriend. He looked like he desired her, her! Fallon King. It was then and there Fallon knew Erik would have no issue faking their relationship in front of his family. With the way he looked at her even she was starting to believe he had feelings for her.

“Then hurry up…” Fallon scrambled for a pet name, “Chubby Bunny, we can’t let all the good trees get away.”

Erik’s face hardened at her nickname, but he didn’t have time to retort before Fallon yanked him into the lot to start shopping for the perfect tree.

They shopped for a tree for two hours. Erik hated it. Fallon loved every minute. She was a city girl through and through. But there was something about Christmas trees that made her want to learn how to chop wood or garden. Whenever Fallon got close to picking out a tree she would inspect it closely. She wanted a week balanced, but not too big, a tree that was fresh enough to last until after Christmas.

At the hour and a half mark, Erik started making calls and working on his phone, leaving Fallon to pick the tree by herself. She was alone for all of five minutes when one of the lot workers approached her. He was tall and handsome. Broad shouldered like he literally cut trees for a living.

The Tree Guy guided Fallon around the lot. He offered insight into caring for the trees so they lasted longer and lifted Fallon by her waist so she could inspect the tops of the trees that towered over her. She laughed when Tree Guy pretended to drop her and the sound must have reached Erik because a second later he was back at her side, scowling at the grip the Tree Guy had on Fallon’s hips.

“Pookie guess what!” Fallon tapped at the hands still holding her up. Tree Guy set her back onto the floor so gently it felt like she was floating.

Fallon pointed at the tree sitting next to them, “I’ve found the perfect tree! It’ll fit great behind the couch. And if we angle it right it’ll be the first thing you see when you walk into the door,” looking into Erik’s heated gaze earnestly, Fallon touched the tree next to her, “Do you like it?”

Erik was scowling so hard Fallon thought his face would crack. It was obvious he didn’t like the sight of the Tree Guy picking her up. And he definitely didn’t like the new nickname. But her fake boyfriend, he couldn’t just go off and she could definitely see he how badly wanted to.

“C'mere baby show me why you like it,” Erik held a hand out to Fallon. This wasn’t the first time he’d used that pet name yet it once again wiped Fallon’s mind of all rational thought.

Stepping out from the warmth of the Tree Guy, she took Erik’s hand and was promptly pulled into Erik’s body. Her chest was against his back, his hands on her hips. He kissed her cheek so slowly Fallon’s body felt like a livewire of sensations. Tingling and lightening and butterflies all competed for dominance. It was so bad Fallon couldn’t even think of a reason she’d liked this tree so much.

“She’s good bruh, I can take it from here. We’ll call you when I’m ready to pay,” Erik dismisses the Tree Guy with a wave of his hand.

Tree Guys mouth hung open but then he shut it and nodded. Once he was out of earshot Fallon turned and glared up at Erik. If his touch had wiped her mind then his dickish behavior reminded her that no matter how good his touch felt, he was still just Erik. The asshole who didn’t care about anyone but himself.

“He was being helpful, you didn’t have to be mean to him.” She tried to step out of his embrace but Erik wasn’t having it. The grip around her waist switched from his hands to his arms. He even had to stoop down a little bit, she was that much shorter than him.

“Yeah helpful, he was trying to help his dick-”

“Erik Stevens if you finish that sentence I will start kicking and I will not hold back.” Fallon hated when he talked like that. She wished she could figure out why he thought everyone was flirting with her. Fallon had never been the girl guys approached, that was Nicole.

“Kick me and I’m gon’ tear that ass up,” Erik threatened. Only his threat didn’t sound serious. Especially because he flexed his arms around Fallon’s waist and lifted her like she was nothing more than a backpack.

“Hey, tree niggas! Come wrap this shit up,” he pointed at the tree Fallon had been admiring while walking towards the register to pay.

Fallon would have asked him to put her down but it was a little difficult because she was laughing so hard. Tree niggas? It was something she could only picture Erik saying and yet it still surprised her. He kept a grip on her throughout the entire transaction. And then made the Tree Guy who picked Fallon up carry their tree to Erik’s car. Before tipping him, Erik kissed Fallon on her cheek and set her on the ground, “I’ll handle this.”

And there was the sexiest thing a man had ever done for her. Fallon would never call herself materialistic, how could she when half her wardrobe was comprised of clothes she made herself and the other half was from the thrift store. But there was something about watching Erik tip this man…There was something about how Erik threw money around. It wasn’t frivolous or showboating, but it was obvious he did quite well for himself.

To Erik money was just a tool, and that fact had Fallon crossing her legs in her seat.

When Erik finally got into the car he shot Fallon a strange look before turning the ignition. “We headed home now?”

Fallon shook her head, “We need to go to the store for decorations for the tree. And I need to get presents for your family.”

Erik nodded and then pulled out of the tree lot carefully. After managing to merge into traffic, one of Erik’s hands left the steering wheel to settle on her thigh. His hand was warm and large. The feel of it sent lighting up Fallon’s spine that settled into butterflies a second later. It was good that they were doing this, getting all the pre-show jitters out now when his family wouldn’t be around scrutinizing their every move. Still, his touch was a total surprise, and it took Fallon a few minutes to relax enough to be okay with it.

Once she did, however, Fallon found that she liked the feel of his hand on her thigh. It was steadying and relaxing. It gave her something to focus on when the traffic got so bad they moved one inch every five minutes. The fact that she liked how it felt wasn’t lost on her, but she chose not to examine it. They were practicing for his family, she knew that. Any other thoughts she had bouncing around in her head was just her imagination getting the better of her.

Once they were home Erik would no doubt do something to annoy her and this fluttery feeling in her chest would go away once and for all.


	16. Chapter 16

Fallon stood at the stove stirring furiously and glaring into the pot of heated egg, milk, and sugar. Well, the liquid in the pot didn’t deserve her anger. A certain Mister Stevens was the cause of her bad mood. After shopping for more decorations Erik had convinced Fallon to head home for the day. He wouldn’t admit that his sleek, fast, expensive car was shit when it came to storage space. Fallon conceded if only because she wanted to get their tree to water as soon as possible.

Once home, Fallon had planned to vibe out to an oldie’s Christmas playlist and get into the decorating zone. Only Erik decided he wanted to help, for some reason. Help must mean something wherever Erik was from (and damn she should really look into that) because Erik decided to help by messing with her carefully balanced decorating scheme. Their tree was a beautiful lush green and the dark forest color went well the mix of moody masculine and shimmering precious metals.

Fallon had gotten more silver and golden baubles, garlands, and twinkling lights. She planned on making the star for the top herself as soon as she trimmed the tree. All those plans went out the window when Erik kept moving her decorations out of place. He placed two gold ornaments together on the tree, in spite of Fallon’s specific instructions not to. When Fallon began wrapping the lights around the tree, Erik and all his bulk were in her way and he refused to move.

He obviously found all of this really amusing. Fallon didn’t even have to think too hard to realize he was messing with her for the sake of it, but it felt too much like bullying. She cared a lot about making his house look nice for his family. She wasn’t all that close with her own. Fallon had no idea how to act around other people’s families. But she knew she could decorate the hell out of a space, especially with the unlimited budget Erik had given her.

Maybe she was taking it too personally but after Erik started tickling her while she tried to test the lights, Fallon washed her hands on the whole project. It was still daylight, and Fallon had planned to force Erik up onto a ladder to string lights around the house, but she was done with the day. She’d thrown the lights on the floor and then stomped to her room. 

For three hours Fallon kept herself occupied with the construction of Nicole’s party dress. They’d need to do another fitting before the actual party, but the muslin Fallon worked on for a test run looked great already. She avoided even looking at Erik’s blanket. She was so upset with him she didn’t know if she could stop herself from unraveling the nearly finished project.

Eventually, she had to leave her room. Just because he pissed her off didn’t mean Fallon would let the man starve. There were enough leftovers in the fridge to tie him over for a week, but she preferred cooking a hot meal fresh every night. Walking through the living room only served to make her angrier. The tree was still half decorated, most of the lights she’d been trying to wrap around it lay in a heap on the floor. Erik was nowhere in sight.

With her lips pinched together Fallon started some spaghetti. It was the easiest thing she could make with how angry she was. The spaghetti took less than an hour to make, yet Erik still hadn’t emerged wherever he’d been hiding. Not that she expected anything more from him. In his eyes, she was just a means to an end. All she was good for was keeping his family off his back.

Fallon was too angry to work with fabric so she started making ice cream. It wasn’t something she did often because of the work involved. Yet the time-consuming nature of the dish was the only thing Fallon wanted to focus on.

Once Fallon put the ice cream mixture in the freezer to set, Erik walked in through the front door wearing his thick jacket and fingerless gloves. In one hand he held a staple gun and in the other, an empty box. He turned into the kitchen and stood in the doorway staring at Fallon at behind the island counter.

“You still mad?” Erik asked with barely any inflection in his voice. She could see him eyeing the pot of spaghetti and the garlic bread she had resting on a rack on the stove.

Still too upset to answer him, Fallon turned towards the sink and began washing her dishes. Behind her, she could hear Erik huff, most likely in exasperation. The sound of the heavy nail gun being set on the counter followed the sound of fabric shifting as he began moving around the room. Fallon was still scrubbing at the same mixing bowl when Erik’s bulk began blocking the light coming from the ceiling lights above the counter.

“C’mon you know I was just playin,” He was so close the words were spoken right into her ear. Fallon had to resist the urge to shiver which pissed her off. How could her body still react to this man when she wasn’t even sure she liked him right now?

“I really care about making everything perfect for your family. I care about the projects I work on. I know it seems silly,” Fallon set the bowl back into the sink and sighed “I know it’s silly. But decorating, crafting…this is all I have. I don’t have a family. I have two friends with their own lives to live and their own problems to deal with. At the end of the day making homemade ornaments, cooking elaborate meals and desserts makes me happy. To have you making a joke out of it,” Fallon shook her head and began scrubbing at the bowl with more fury.

Why bare her soul to a guy who has proven not to care what anyone thinks? Yeah, he was nice that one time when her anxiety attack, but one blip in his usual behavior did not mean he was suddenly reformed. Fallon knew she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up. She knew it shouldn’t bother her this much that he’d been teasing her earlier. But it did bother her. It bothered her so fucking much and it bothered her, even more, that she let him see how upset she was.

“I was just playing but let me make it up to you,” Erik’s hands landed on her hips. The act was becoming a familiar feeling but she still jumped with surprise at his touch.

“I don’t how you could possibly-”

“Just shut up and come outside,” Erik barked, “And if you still got an attitude then you can go back to ignoring me and I’ll leave you alone.”

Fallon stared at the dark marbled backsplash. Should she listen to him? Erik hadn’t broken a promise yet. If he said he’d allow her to ignore him she might just take him up on that offer. But what could possibly be outside?

“Fine,” Fallon conceded, “But that means when I come in here to cook you can’t take up half my counter space with your work. That’s what your office is for.”

Erik nodded and then began moving Fallon by her hips away from the kitchen sink and towards the front door. Before leading her out, Erik placed one large hand over Fallon’s eyes. Thinking this was all silly, Fallon allowed it. There was nothing Erik could possibly show her, besides an apology, to make up for his shitty behavior while tree decorating. She felt the cold of the outside before she heard the door open. Erik led her out of the house with careful steps.

With his hand still on her hip and his other hands covering her face, Fallon had to rely on Erik completely to guide her in the right direction. It was a heady feeling, being at the mercy of Erik. Yet surprisingly enough Fallon found that she trusted him. For all his dickishness Erik has never been cruel to her. After the life she’s lived Fallon had learned that “not cruel” was all you could hope for from some people.

The walked down Erik’s front walk. Erik led her all the way to what Fallon guessed what the front gate, then he turned them both. Before he moved his hand away, Erik pressed closer to her. The warmth he emitted made her realize she was shivering. It finally decided to get cold in California the one day she went outside without her jacket.

“Alright, I worked hard on this. I know it’s probably not what you wanted but…fuck it. Check it out,” Erik removed his hand from Fallon’s face. What she saw took her breath away, and for a moment all she could do was stare.

Erik had taken the lights Fallon planned on stringing up outside and placed them on the house himself. To be honest they didn’t look amazing. Fallon would have done a better job had she been out here with him. But the effect of those lights on Fallon was deeper than anything she could have imagined. He’d wrapped the twinkling lights on the sloping roof. There were a few trees and bushes in the yard, they were also wrapped in lights. The effect, in the with the sun low in the sky behind the house and the sky itself a bruised kind of purple, was magical.

Yeah, there was no rhyme or reason to the placement of lights. Fallon could definitely tell Erik’s mind was more on coverage than placement. But the thought put into the gesture. She couldn’t describe the feeling in her chest. He’d listened to her. Erik had actually listened to her and tried to make her feel better for how shitty he’d acted earlier.

Turning towards Erik, Fallon was embarrassed to notice she had tears in her eyes. This was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her, and it had come from Erik no less. Without putting any thought into it, Fallon threw herself at Erik. He caught her instinctively, and once she was settled in his arms he glanced down at her to gauge her reaction.

“You like it?” he asked, shifting his grip on her so that she could wrap her legs around his torso and he could settle his hands on her thighs. It was more intimate a hold than Fallon had been going for but she was too touched, too happy, to care.

“I’m gonna be honest it’s a little sloppy, But it’s the thought that counts and this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me,” Squeezing him into a close hug, Fallon placed her lips against the shell of Erik’s ear and whispered, “I love it. Thank you, sweetie,”


	17. Chapter 17

Erik was a lot more helpful with trimming the tree once they got indoors. Fallon made hot chocolate for them both to warm up. She even put chocolate shavings and a striped, chocolate wafer straw in Erik’s drink. Once the tree looked as beautiful as it had in Fallon’s head, they two of them settled on the couch together and queued up an episode of Great British Bake Off. They sat practically under each other on the couch. Despite Erik turning the heater on, Fallon still felt chilled to the bone from going outside.

Wrapped in a blanket, staring at one of her favorite shows, and just generally as cozy as one could be, it took Fallon a moment to realize how close she and Erik were. His arm was on the back of the couch with Fallon sitting practically underneath it. If she leaned just enough to one side she’d be leaning against his side. If she were his girlfriend she’d cuddle up to him without a second thought. But she didn’t think she was ready for that yet.

Which, is exactly why she should do it. His family was no longer some distant thought to be dealt with later on. They were coming. There was a date set. Fallon needed to get over whatever personal space hang-ups she had against Erik. She needed to woman up. It was with that thought in mind that Fallon closed the bit of distance between her and Erik, and settled comfortably into Erik’s side.

Fallon felt tense with anticipation. Erik, for the most part, didn’t react. He moved his arm so that he was actually holding her against him, then resettled to watch the show. His touch felt nice. He was warmer than Fallon ever was, even on her best day. As the show progressed her feet once again ended up in Erik’s lap, with her back pressed against the seat cushions. Erik’s hand was in what Fallon had dubbed His Spot on her ankle. One of his thumbs rubbed against the skin there and the feeling was hypnotic.

“Hey, let me ask you somethin’ real quick,” Erik suddenly shifted. Lifting the remote, he paused the episode and looked down at Fallon where she lay on the couch cushions.

Once her eyes were fixed on him Erik started, “We should probably get the basics of our story together. Tomorrow we can go into detail, iron out some facts,”

Fallon’s brow furrowed, “Now? But they were just gonna reveal the recipe for the technical,” Erik made a face at her until she sighed, “Fine, I guess we can finish it later.”

He chuckled at her pouty tone and squeezed her foot before shifting it off of his lap and onto the floor. When Fallon sat up, she pulled her feet up onto the couch and faced Erik. He was out of his thick coat and dressed simply in a white, fitted t-shirt and familiar gray sweats. He looked grownup and sexy. Fallon felt almost childish in her reindeer themed onesie. Almost. Not enough for her to take it off.

“So where do you want to start?” Fallon picked at one of the jingle bell buttons on the front of her onesie.

“Ionknow. I thought you would have had questions prepared already.” Erik shrugged dumbly.

Fallon rolled her eyes into the heavens, “Why would you assume that?”

“Because you’re usually more prepared than this!”

Fallon snorted, “When have you ever seen me be prepared for something. We don’t even work on the same floor.”

Erik wouldn’t meet her eyes for a moment. Fallon noticed it immediately. Erik was the king of staredowns. In fact, Fallon had gotten caught in the laser beam that was his eyes on accident more than once since staying with him. The fact that he chose now to suddenly have an eye contact problem was not lost on Fallon. She would have to investigate that later.

“Any brothers or sisters,” Fallon asked into the stilted silence.

Erik glanced at her, “You know I don’t? I was an only child until my parents died. Then I was raised with my cousins, so I guess,” Erik shrugged, “Fuck it, yeah. One brother, one sister.”

Fallon nodded, “See that wasn’t so hard. Now you ask me a question,”

“Hold up, you not gon’ answer the last one?”

Fallon’s hands fidgeted with her blanket, “We didn’t specify any rules to this.”

Erik’s eyes narrowed, “Are you trying to dodge the question?” the way he said it let Fallon know just how hilarious he found her attempt.

“You know the Center keeps a record of every employee we have? I can just look up your old file through HR,” Erik cocked an eyebrow in challenge, “Or you could just tell me.”

Fallon cursed under her breath, “I have three step-siblings and one half-brother,” As an afterthought, she added, “We’re not close.”

Erik nodded and opened his mouth, “Ah ah,” Fallon interrupted, “Now it’s my turn.”

He shot her an unimpressed look but she had never cared much about impressing him.

“Where did you go grow up?”

“I was raised out here, up in Oakland. After my pops died I went to live with my uncle in Africa,”

Fallon could hear from in his accent that he was from somewhere in California. He’d mentioned Africa before, but he never went into detail. He never said where in Africa he was from. As if he thought Fallon was one of those idiots who assumed Africa was a country instead of a continent.

“How ‘bout you?”

Fall had to let out a loud breath before she answered, “I’m from Compton. But I spent high school in Long Beach before I moved out here when I was 16.”

Erik’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline, “You moved out when you were 16?”

Fallon shrugged. “Moved out” was a lot tamer than the truth. Moved out sounded like she had some choice in the matter. In reality, Fallon left. It had gotten to the point where she couldn’t stay with her mother anymore. An Uncle had been nice enough to take her in for two years, but he couldn’t afford to support a teenager. Eventually, Fallon pushed to graduate early so she could get a job as soon as possible.

“You already asked me a question, it’s my turn.” Fallon waited Erik’s stare out. Once he accepted she wouldn’t be asking any more questions she started talking, “When’s the last time you had a real girlfriend?”

Erik was suddenly stiff, and he once again wouldn’t meet her eyes. He mumbled something that she couldn’t catch even in the nearly silent room. Bouncing on her knees Fallon moved across the couch and right into Erik’s personal space.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

“Shit, none! Okay? Zero. I’ve never had a girlfriend before!” Erik looked so annoyed yet all Fallon could do was cackle at his expense. Mostly because she didn’t believe him. Yet the idea that he was telling the truth was too hilarious for her to bare.

Erik “Think with his dick” Stevens has publicly been sexually involved with about six of her coworkers. Then again, Fallon remembered, a sexual relationship isn’t a real relationship. Erik could still have community dick and not have any girlfriends.

“Since you think shit is funny, how about you? Huh, tell me about all the niggas you been with.” Erik was in her face, challenging her with a fierce look in his eyes. Next thing she knew he was fully facing her, pointing all his bulk in her direction.

“Is this your final question? You seem to have a problem remembering that we’re going back in forth here. You know, one for one?”

“Look at you talking all that shit. Can’t even answer the question,” Erik made a show of looking her up and down and the scrunching his face up, “You so fuckin scary,”

Fallon reeled back with laughter, “Boy I ain’t scary! It wouldn’t matter if I did tell you how many boyfriends I’ve had. It’s still more than you!”

“So why can’t you just tell me then? Why are you stalling? Just answer the question,” Erik was smiling as he taunted her. A big dimpled smile that had Fallon smiling right back at him.

“Why do you want to know so bad?” Fallon tried to speak around her laughter but she couldn’t help it. Here they were, two adults, sitting on the couch and practically yelling at each other while they were supposed to be getting to know one another. She was wearing a reindeer onesie and Erik’s locs were sticking straight up in that ridiculous bun. 

This wasn’t something she ever imagined happening in her life and yet Fallon couldn’t even lie and say she didn’t like it. She’d never had fun like this with anyone who wasn’t Nicole. Fallon hadn’t even thought it was a possibility to laugh this hard or smile this much around Erik. Case in point, he was now directing weirdly accurate jabs of his finger at her while egging her on to answer his question. He kept hitting her ticklish spots and, oddly enough, her bellybutton with dead-on accuracy.

“Let me guess, it was a whole gaggle of ain’t shit niggas who wasted your time.” Erik laughed as he tried to get around her feeble defenses to continue poking at her.

Fallon giggled breathlessly, “A gaggle?”

“Hell yeah, a gaggle. Don’t act like you ain’t never seen a gaggle of niggas before. Go to any corner liquor store and it’s always a gaggle of those niggas sittin’ there with nowhere else to be at 1 in the afternoon.”

Fallon laughed out right then and lost her balance. Erik shot out one arm to catch her while using the other arm to balance himself on the couch. Only it didn’t work out that way at all. Instead, his hand slipped off the back of the couch and he fell onto Fallon who’d landed safely on the couch seat cushions. She let out a breathless “Ooff,” when all of Erik fell onto all of her. He was so muscular it felt like a laundry bag of meat was crushing her into the couch.

Still, she continued to laugh even while struggling for air.

“Oh, shit baby are you okay?” Erik lifted the majority of his weight off of Fallon, instantly allowing her to take a deep inhale.

“You weigh the same as like, a thousand suns. What have I been feeding you?” Fallon shook out the hands that had been crushed to her chest when Erik fell onto her.

She placed her cold hands on her warm face and tried to calm down from all that laughter. She couldn’t remember laughing that hard since she was a kid. There were actual tears in the corner of her eyes. A peek at Erik had another laughing fit tickling at the back at her throat. He looked so worried, checking her over to see if he’d actually hurt her in their brief stumble.

They were definitely lucky to have stayed on the couch. The hardwood floor had only the thinnest layer of a rug to soften their fall. If Erik had fallen on to her down there she’d have for sure broken something.

Fallon met Erik’s eyes to assure her that she was fine, no harm done since it was her own fault for losing her balance. But her eyes snagged on the heat and intensity in Erik’s gaze. He was closer to her than he’d ever been since she’d known him. If she wanted Fallon could lean in and brush her nose against his. It was lucky she could blink with how lost she was in his eyes.

Hesitantly, Fallon raised her arms to stroke down the hard, muscular plane of his chest. Her hand lingered over his heart, where she could feel it beating a mile a minute against her own racing pulse. Instinctively her eyes danced towards Erik’s lips. She’d noticed before how soft and kissable they looked. Now they were the picture of plump, physical temptation. Erik must have licked them or something because they looked soft and almost shiny to Fallon’s eyes.

Either way, Fallon felt the sudden need to see for herself what his lips really felt like. She’d been describing them as soft to herself since that morning she woke up on the couch with him. They were right there, just begging for her to take a taste.

A ding ringing from the kitchen snapped Fallon out of her lust filled haze. Her phone was still on the counter where she’d left it while making homemade ice cream. The chime meant that the ice cream had set.

“I think…” Fallon swallowed and begged for some saliva, any saliva, to coat her suddenly dry mouth, “That’s enough for questions tonight.”


	18. Chapter 18

“Okay no, you asked me here to help you and I can’t help you if you insist on doing things the easy way.” Fallon snatched the two cans of string beans out of Duncan’s hands and placed them back on the shelf.

She didn’t have a problem with canned food usually, there has been many a time where canned food was all she survived on. But for Christmas? No. Duncan’s family was coming down from Minnesota to spend Christmas with him. It was the perfect time to pull out the big guns and use as much fresh food as possible.

Duncan stared after the canned vegetables with longing, “But they’re so easy!”

Fallon shook her head. She led the basket out of the canned good eye and approached the deli counter. Duncan trailed behind her, touching at the displays of Bimbo brand bread and sweets with interest. Usually, Duncan went to visit his family back at his childhood home. But last year his younger sister hosted Christmas at her house with her husband. It basically put a lot of attention on Duncan and the fact that he was eight years older than her and no closer to starting a family or settling down. 

 

Now Duncan was hoping to prove to his parents that their son was doing just fine on his own by hosting Christmas this year. It would be the first time Duncan hosted anyone aside from their small friend group at his place. And you really couldn’t even call him the host when they did hold their get-togethers at his house. It was Nicole who usually did the planning and then Fallon always made the menu and cooked for everyone. Duncan was a host in the sense that parties have been held in his apartment before, only he was just as much of a guest as the people he invited.

“Now you said your sister doesn’t eat turkey and your dad can’t have ham after his heart scare last year?” Fallon squinted at the price per pound of sliced meats on the chalkboard menu behind the counter. She might as well buy her own meat slicer and slice her own ham at those prices.

“Yeah, how’d you remember that?” Duncan asked.

Fallon shrugged, “I remember you said that Thanksgiving wasn’t the same since your dad’s heart attack scare. That was the reason I made you the Thanksgiving hash that had all your favorites. Including -”

“Canned cranberry sauce!” He laughed, “Fuck how could I forget that? My mom served this weird Franken-bird and while my sister and dad choked it down I got to eat that delicious hash,” Duncan licked his lips.

“I used to dream about that hash,” He fixed deep blue eyes on her, “That was one of the nicest things a friend ever did for me,”

Fallon beamed and then quickly turned back to the counter to hide her cheesy smile. “Let’s just pick out a chicken and go. I have the perfect recipe for you to give your parents in a week.”

 

“Erik could you help me with the bags,” Fallon called out, breathless, into the living room of the house. Her arms were weighed down by more bags than she could technically carry. Thankfully the kitchen was in sight, otherwise, she’d have dropped the boxes of stuffing a long time ago.

She couldn’t hear any sound from the back of the house which was strange. Erik’s car was out front in the driveway. At this time of day should be in his home office. Fallon listened for any sound in the house at all. For a moment there was complete silence and then the sound of laughter? Following the noise back out the front door, Fallon walked around the side of the house to a back gate leading to Erik sloped backyard. It wasn’t somewhere she was entirely familiar with surprisingly enough. She had no idea what to expect when she pushed the gate open.

However, a jet was not one of them. There was a fucking jet, hovering in the backyard. It was the strangest looking jet Fallon had ever seen. Well, it was pretty much the only jet she’d seen with her own eyes. The fact that it looked different than the jets she saw on Real Housewives or Dynasty meant nothing in the face of the fact that a fucking jet was just…parked in Erik’s backyard.

“Hey, baby, you’re home!” Fallon’s eyes dropped down to Erik, standing practically underneath the jet in front of a group of four people. Behind those four people was a group of six or eight red and metal clad women. They were all bald and fierce looking. A lot like…Erik’s assistant. And the woman he’d hired to replace her in the Events department.

Erik ran up the gently sloping hill in his backyard to get to the gate she still stood in. Fallon’s eyes studied his features closely, looking for the moment he went from Stevens’ her boss to the man whose family just casually parked a jet in his backyard. She’d always known he was rich. No man would let her do what she did with his credit card unless he had money to burn.

Yet still, a part of her clung to the simple and straightforward nature of who Erik was. He liked gold, he liked expensive things, but there was also a kind of restraint to him. He bought what he wanted, but that was it. If he didn’t need it he didn’t buy it. The only exception to this unspoken rule was the freedom he allowed Fallon. She bought enough food to feed a family of four. The money she spent on craft supplies, in general, would be enough to sustain her for years when all this was over.

Still, all that was different from a literal jet being parked in his fucking backyard.

When Erik reached her his features were pulled halfway between happiness, actual happiness, and worry. He noticed she was statue-like in the front gate. At this point, he could probably see the terror in her eyes because Fallon could certainly feel it crawling up her throat. Weirdly enough she wasn’t the least bit afraid of his family. Over his shoulder, she could see them staring after Erik with interest.

Fallon recognized them instantly from the stories Erik’s told her over the last two days. His uncle wasn’t very tall, but he gave off this air of calm authority and strength. His aunt, much taller and absolutely beautiful than Erik had told her, stood next to him with all the grace and poise of a queen. Between them was an obvious teenager, Fallon could tell by the way she fidgeted, Erik’s cousin Shuri. Then, at the end of the foursome closer to Fallon, was a man of about the same height as Erik. That was T’Challa.

Fallon shut her eyes instantly, she couldn’t look at them too long. The sick feeling in her stomach was getting stronger. Why hadn’t Erik told her more about his family’s wealth? Would it have been so hard to prepare her to meet the people who not only raised him but also traveled with an all-female security detail? Fallon had felt pretty good about where they sat with one another over the past two days. Now all of that felt like a waste. For all that Erik tried to prepare her to meet them, he’d left out a few crucial details.

Details had always been an anchor for Fallon. Having all the information protected her from making the wrong decisions or doing the wrong thing. It was the little details added to a handmade craft that made it unique and special. Anyone could buy their ornaments, anyone can pay for a meal, it was the energy and effort put into the little things, that made it all worthwhile.

“Hey, Fallon. You okay?” Erik’s arms came around her at once. He crowded her into his chest, hiding her with his bulk from the no doubt watching eyes of his family.

“You forgot to tell me something. Didn’t you Erik?” Fallon whispered into his chest. The last thing she wanted to do was make a scene. But the emotion building in her chest was too close to flipping from anger to panic. She didn’t want to flip over to either side of that emotional spectrum.

Erik’s body tensed against her, basically confirming her suspicions. With a cleansing deep breath, Fallon let out all her anger on the exhale. There was nothing she could do about Erik at the moment. His family was expecting to meet her. She only had one shot at an introduction.

“Okay, I need you to get the rest of the groceries and take them into the house. I’ll go greet your family and bring them inside.” Fallon pushed out of Erik’s grip. She couldn’t meet his eyes while brushing the wrinkle out of her gingerbread skirt, “I need you to entertain them while I cook dinner. And not in the kitchen. I need to be alone for a bit after this.”

Before Fallon could step around him to greet his family, Erik grabbed her arm and held her close, “I should have told you-”

“It’s fine Erik. I’ll get through this.” Fallon had to pull herself out of his grip once again took careful steps toward his richer than she anticipated family. They watched her the closer she came, the looks on their faces just as assessing as it was welcoming. Fallon took that as a good sign. They wanted to like her just as much as she wanted them to like her.

As she reached the part of the sloping ground that flattened out Fallon had to step carefully or risk losing her balance at any moment. The blanket of leaves on the ground didn’t provide much traction on the sloped hill. More than once Fallon thanked the woman who taught her to walk in heels because without those lessons she’d have twisted an ankle by now.

Fallon was almost home free. The flattest part of the ground was in sight. So of course, at the last minute, Fallon’s foot landed right on top of a clump of leaves and she lost her balance immediately. There was absolutely nothing for her to hold on to so Fallon had nowhere to go but down. Right in front of his family,

Fallon landed with a thump, right on her ass, right in front of Erik’s family. It was one of the most humiliating moments of her life. The roar in her ears muffled the sound of Erik calling to ask if she was okay. Yet they picked up when his concern morphed into belly-deep laughter that him leaning against the back fence for support. His aunt sent Erik a reproachful glare and then looked at her son and husband expectantly.

Erik’s cousin, T’Challa, arrived at her side first. Holding out his hand, T’Challa waited for Fallon to reach out to him before helping her to her feet. Kind, soft brown eyes studied her face.

“Are you alright? That was quite a fall,” He glanced back up at Erik, who was holding his stomach and wiping tears from his eyes. T’Challa shook his head, “Ignore him. He couldn’t walk a straight line until he was sixteen years old. Before that, he walked like a baby antelope.”

“Worse!” Erik’s uncle chuckled. His voice was a lot like his sons, low and kind of hoarse sounding. It was just as soothing as well. Fallon could see the resemblance between the two men immediately, “N’Jadaka was a clumsy boy,”

Fallon smiled at their efforts to make her feel better. It was so kind of them. It made her wonder how Erik was related to them at all. Her so-called boyfriend had let himself out the backyard, yet the sounds of his fading laughter could still be heard.

“I wish we’d had a better introduction than this,” Fallon carefully finger-brushed her hair back into place.

“Erik should be here introducing you,” Ramonda’s tone made it known that she did not like her nephew’s actions.

“Please don’t be mad at him. I had bags I needed him to carry into the house. I wanted to cook you all dinner to welcome you to our home.” She smiled at them brightly.

There was a snicker from the teenager, Shuri. When Fallon’s eyes landed on her, Shuri motioned towards her head. Fallon mimicked her and figured out that she had a leaf in her hair. Great.

T’Chaka smiled warmly at her, “You do not have to cook for us.”

Fallon shook her head, “No, I really want to. I also want to make up for Erik’s behavior. Please, let me cook for you.”

Ramonda and T’Chaka shared a look, then Ramonda stepped forward and linked her arm with Fallon’s, “Let’s go up the hill together. I’m sure it will be easier that way,”


	19. Chapter 19

“Here you are, sweetie,” Fallon handed a small glass of coquito to Erik over the back of the couch. After watching the Charmed mid-season finale she’d been itching to try the recipe out. So far the drink was a hit. It was rich, and very alcoholic, while at the same time being the perfect Christmas drink.

Erik and his family all sat on the couch, talking over one another and catching up. She’d never seen Erik smile so much. The light Shuri brought out in him, the light Shuri brought out in her older brother, had Fallon falling in love with her herself. She had this sweet naivete and innocence because, while she was easily one of the most intelligent people in the room, she was still a child. Fallon listened to her banter with Erik and T’Challa from the kitchen with a smile on her face.

Taking out the bucket holding the brine-soaked rack of pork chops Fallon cleared off enough counter space to start chopping the rack into individual steaks and rubbing them down with enough spices to seep into the meat. While those marinated she started working on her sides.

Erik liked the way she roasted carrots so she gave those a quick rub down of oil, salt, pepper, and honey. Those would go in after the pork chops. Fallon wanted to reverse sear them with this herb butter she made a few days ago. Saffron rice will complete the meal. Erik really liked the crunchy saffron infused rice that hardened at the bottom of the pot. She tried to make it as often as possible.

Fallon turned to check the temperature of the oven and then slid the rack of pork chops and the baking sheet of carrots into the oven. When she turned around Fallon found T'Challa staring back at her.

“Oh!” Fallon jumped and then cursed. Shooting a tight smile at T'Challa she tried to calm her racing heart, “I wasn’t expecting you to be there and it startled me. What can I get you T’Challa?”

T'Challa didn’t look like Erik at all. For one he was smaller. Erik was all muscle and wide shoulders. T'Challa was much more compact. He looked strong, but where Erik was very aggressive and obvious about his strength, T'Challa felt more approachable. He smiled as much as Erik scowled and it was shockingly nice to have a person in the kitchen with her and not expect them to pick at her for their own amusement.

“Allow me to help you. I hope I don’t embarrass you if I admit that you did not look ready to see us today.” Fallon blinked at T'Challa in surprise.

“Well I knew you were coming I just,” Fallon paused then she shook her head and re-cemented the smile on her face, “I can’t let you help out, you’re a guest. You should be over with Erik catching up.”

“Ah,” T'Challa settled across the counter from her, “I speak with my cousin every day. I’m sure you’ll agree with me when I say there is such a thing as too much Erik.”

Fallon laughed. She could agree with him there. Erik took up more space with just his physical presence than anyone she had ever met. The past two days have especially been a new level of too much because of the underlying tension that defined most of their interactions. Fallon didn’t know if Erik wanted to kiss her or yell at her. The fact that he went for a run two hours into moving her stuff into his room was proof that he felt the same way.

“Do you do work with the Center as well?” Fallon gathered glasses out of the cabinet.

“Our family founded the Outreach program. Erik is in charge of three other Centers on the West Coast. We work together to figure out what each community needs and together we figure out the distribution of funds, etc. I don’t want to bore you.”

Fallon hadn’t known any of this. As an assistant, she’d known that most of the Centers equipment and funding came from one specific donor. But it never dawned on her that the people who made her job a possibility were related to Erik. With shaking fingers Fallon poured a glass of coquito and slid it across the counter to T'Challa. He stared at the dense coconut and rum scented drink with wary eyes.

“It’s a bit lethal but don’t worry. It's so rich from the condensed milk and coconut cream that you won’t be throwing back whole glasses. It’s more of a sipping drink.” When T'Challa continued to hesitate Fallon slid over a plate of leftover sugar cookies, “If it’s too alcoholic eat a couple of these and you’ll be right as rain.”

T'Challa studied Fallon a second more. He took a careful sip. Then, he smiled. He made a pleased noise and went back for more.

“See! I knew you’d like it. And if you’re not a fan of getting drunk the dinner will fill you up in the best way.”

“Ngelosi,” T'Challa chuckled, “Where did my cousin find you?”

Fallon stirred the simmering pot of rice on the stove to hide her face. She was feeling too many emotions at once and didn’t want to tip T'Challa off that what he said had been news to her. What had she and Erik talked about for two weeks? The worst part was knowing that if she asked why he never told her he’d come up with something idiotic like, “You never asked,”.

“Dinner will be ready in thirty minutes. Could you give me a hand and set the table for me?” Fallon smiled at T'Challa with a cheeriness that did not reach her heart.

 

That night, Fallon and Erik got ready to share a bed together for the first time. His family had gone to bed right after dinner. They thanked Fallon for the meal and apologized for turning in so early. Fallon couldn’t even enjoy knowing that they’d liked her food. Her mind was too preoccupied with everything she didn’t know about Erik. And what did it mean about her that she was perfectly fine with spending his money and living with him when she knew so little about him?

Fallon settled into Erik’s dark sheets after wrapping her hair and rubbing in her moisturizer. The man himself was going through a few quick reps of push ups, sit ups, and stretches. She’d had a plan to wait him out, but that quickly went out the window when Erik started to redo all his reps.

Chucking a pillow at his head, she waited until she heard him curse before speaking up, “You owe me several explanations and an extra $20,000 tacked on to our deal because you definitely lured me here under false pretenses.”

Erik’s head and shoulders popped up from the ground and he scowled at her, “What you throwin’ shit for?”

“Because I had to find out today that your family is rich enough to fly a jet from freaking Africa to California,” She threw another pillow and it landed with a fwap! Right in his stupidly handsome face.

“Throw another pillow and I’m gon’ come up there. I’m not playing with you Fallon,” Erik was on his knees now, holding on to both pillows in anticipation of her next attack.

He looked unfairly gorgeous. After her arrival, Ramonda attacked Erik’s mop of locs and now they were braided neatly back on his head. He was shirtless and the view of his scars and abs did things to Fallon she’d rather not think about right before she had to lay next to the man all night. She wished she were angrier, maybe then his body and his face wouldn’t still look so attractive to her.

“T'Challa told me he works with you on the Center and that you two talk every day,” a horrible thought occurred to her, “Wait he said your family is the main donor for the Center. And Shuri is the one developing the tech we use in the Science department…”A lot of uncomfortable coincidences all lined up at once.

Fallon’s heart began to pound, “Your family is from Wakanda, aren’t they?” Erik’s silence punctuated by the fact that he’d started moving towards her like he thought she was an animal he didn’t want to startle.

“Fallon, baby-”

“That’s why they call you N'Jadaka. You’re from Wakanda.” Fallon slapped her hands over her face, “Erik I swear to god if you’re secretly a prince I will leave you and take the leftovers.”

So much was adding up all at once and now Fallon felt sick to her stomach. This sickness was worse than her surprise at seeing Erik’s family before she knew they’d arrived. This sickness felt too much like hurt and betrayal. Which is ridiculous because Erik didn’t owe her anything.

But he lied to her. Erik told her just enough information to get her to help him deceive his family. Hell, he barely did that. She’s sure his family would think it strange that his girlfriend of six months was just now finding out that they were literal royalty.

“Fallon,” Erik crawled into bed. His hands sought out her blanket covered thighs, “C'mon don’t get worked up over this.”

Fallon glared down at him through her fingers, “You better start talking. Or I will leave right now.”

Erik’s face hardened, “And go where? With what money?”

“With the $20,000 you owe me because of your lying. And another $20,000 for sticking around two weeks longer than I needed to.”

Brown eyes stared into brown eyes, neither one unwilling to back down. It was Erik who broke. He shifted on the bed uncomfortably for a second before he started talking. 

He assured her that everything he did tell her had been the truth. He did go to live with his Aunt and Uncle after his father’s death. They actually really were traditional and meddlesome, partly because they were family and partly because as the second prince of Wakanda his marriage affected not only the family but the people of their country. Though T'Challa was next in line for the throne, Erik could be useful through a political marriage.

Erik loved Wakanda but he didn’t have plans to settle down until he absolutely had to. His life was the Center. If he got married he’d have to return to Wakanda and leave the Center to be run by someone else.

“I guess it all makes sense,” Fallon studied Erik with the new information about him still banging around in her head.

“Are you gonna leave me now,” As he said the words he studied her. Fallon would have preferred to answer without him staring her down. Honestly, she’d rather not answer at all. She had too much to process between Erik finally giving her the whole story and her feelings.

“Not now,” Fallon finally answered, “But you’re on thin ice.”


	20. Chapter 20

Fallon wakes up warmer and cozier than she’s ever felt in her life. She didn’t know where Erik sourced his mattress but as soon as he paid her she had to get one of these for her place. She didn’t care if the mattress took up all the bedroom/dining room/living room/etc. Space. She deserved it. The quality of the sheets had to be insanely high, as well. She felt perfectly cocooned in just the right amount of warmth.

Most mornings Fallon woke up with cold feet and her blanket somehow wrapped around her head. This morning, she woke up in a cocoon of heat snuggled against a body that had to double as a space heater because her back was slick with sweat where it met Erik’s chest. He had one arm underneath her neck, the other was locked around her waist in a grip so tight she was surprised she hadn’t realized it before.

Wiggling away from Erik’s heat was impossible, and she certainly didn’t want to wiggle towards it. Actually, wiggling of any sort would probably make the problem digging into the crack of her ass worse than it already was. Great. Fallon was trapped against the body of a god with nowhere to go. Any normal girl wouldn’t have wanted anywhere. If she was being honest with herself Fallon didn’t want to go anywhere either. But that was exactly why she had to put an end to all this as soon as possible.

Yesterday Fallon had learned a lot. The main thing is that Erik descended from literal royalty. It had taken her all night to convince herself that she couldn’t be convicted of treason from a country she wasn’t a citizen of. Still, the fear persisted. His Aunt and Uncle flew in on a jet that was still currently parked in the backyard. If that didn’t scream super powerful foreign entity the Fallon was vegan.

When she was too tired to worry about Erik and his family, she began to worry about Erik and her feelings. It took her two hours, and a trip to the kitchen for the last of her sugar cookies, to accept the fact that she had feelings. Actual feelings! Feelings centered around Erik motherfucking Stevens. If that even was his real name. He’d told her last night Erik was the name he’d used before moving to Wakanda yet most of his family called him N’Jadaka.

N’Jadaka…Erik Stevens, who cared? The point was Fallon had actual feelings for the same man she’d dubbed community dick at the office. The same office his royal family funded. The same royal family he expected her to lie to until the day after Christmas because he didn’t want to stop working at the Center. She’d dreamed about kissing him. She’d almost kissing when their usual round of banter turned from sarcastic to flirtatious to…him leaning over her with his soft looking lips and intense eyes.

Realizing that she had feelings for a man she was being paid to pretend was her boyfriend was only made worse by the realization that he had the potential to hurt her. Erik has never had a serious relationship before. He’s only recently become a tolerable roommate. Erik had literally laughed at her when she slipped on some leaves trying to be polite to the family he wanted her to lie to.

Obviously, nothing was going to come from this relationship. Erik didn’t do feelings, he didn’t do relationships. That’s the only explanation Fallon has for a man being in his thirties and not having at least one girlfriend in his lifetime. So, because her feelings weren’t likely to turn anything, Fallon snuggled deeper into Erik’s arms. Seconds later she was asleep.

The second time Fallon woke up, the bed was empty and the house quiet. Erik’s side of the bed was cold. In fact, the whole bed felt cold. With a shiver, Fallon slipped from the bed and into her robe. She felt weird. Erik never woke up before her before. She was usually up before him. It was the only reason she’d been able to cook him breakfast most days. The man was an early bird like her but it took him a long time to come out of his room for some reason.

When she entered the living room Fallon found Shuri sitting by herself in the center of the living room. She had on a cool set of blue and blue pajamas that look both silky and almost glowing with light. Shuri had a bowl of cereal in one hand and a long, white looking tool in the other. In front of her was the remains of something mechanic and definitely broken but she seemed unbothered by that latter fact.

“Hello, Fallon.”

“Morning Shuri,” Fallon squinted, “Is that…cereal? Don’t you want a real breakfast? I was just about to whip something up.”

She asked to be nice but if it was the last thing she did Shuri was not gonna start her day with a breakfast of just cereal. Like T’Challa she was tall but compact. Whereas her brother had the mass of muscle to keep him from looking took twiggy. Shuri was a twig. Just elbows and knees and a beautiful smile that she turned up at Fallon.

“More food? Do you cook often?” Shuri set her bowl of cereal aside to stand up. Fallon led her into the kitchen and pointed her at the stool at the island counter she used as a workspace.

“I love to cook.” Fallon gushed. She moved around the kitchen on light feet, in her element and totally at ease.

She realized that Erik really cherished his relationship with Shuri. As important as it was to convince his aunt and uncle that they were serious enough to hold off an arranged marriage, impressing Shuri worried Fallon the most. Erik had described his younger cousin as this cool super intelligent and funny little girl. Shuri was definitely all that and more.

“N’Jadaka must like to eat,” When Fallon turned back to her and the counter to start her prep work, Shuri puffed out her cheeks and pretended to pat his gut. “He ate like an animal last night. You live with that?” She shook her head and shot Fallon a pitying look.

“He works really hard.” Fallon smiled to herself, “You know he’s always the first one in the office and the last one out. He really cares about the Center and he’s working hard to make it work.”

Shuri studied Fallon with bright eyes, “You know it’s because he’s running all three West Coast Center’s from your location.”

Fallon’s brow furrowed, “My location? Don’t you mean the Center’s location?”

Shuri’s eyes widened and then she smiled, “Yeah sorry,” she peered into the bowl Fallon began zesting a lemon into. “What’s that?”

Fallon beamed at her, “The best pancakes you’ll ever have in your life,”

Shuri’s interest grew from there. Fallon prepared a simple breakfast of lemon pancakes, thick cut ham, and lightly scrambled eggs for the two of them. Shuri had a question for every part of the process. It was both nerve-wracking and fun answering the torrent of questions from the curious teen.

The fell into a companionable silence once Fallon made their plates. They ate together right there at the island. Shuri ate with more finesse than her cousin but every other bite had her singing Fallon’s praises. When they finished eating Shuri offered to help clean up. Cleaning up turned into its own lesson because Shuri had never washed dishes before. Fallon’s been washing dishes since she was five years old. It baffled her mind that Shuri’s age had never cleaned up her own mess in her entire life.

“Even if I offered I don’t think anyone back home would let me,” Shuri handed Fallon a wet dish for rinsing and drying. When the younger woman had turned her head back to the soapy water in front of her, Fallon gave the bowl a quick once over. More than once Shuri had missed a speck of this here or a dried remnant of that there. So far she’d been able to spot everyone without having to bring it up to the teen.

Fallon didn’t want to make her first time washing dishes filled with Shuri being corrected. For a first timer at cleaning, she was doing as well as could be expected.

“Well just know that if you ever feel the urge to clean a dish or sweep or…attack the grime in the gutters I’ll be happy to let you.” Shuri gave Fallon a sarcastic smile at her remark but couldn’t reply through her laughter.

They finished the dishes together in record time. At this time of day, Fallon would usually set up on the couch with her knitting and watched her favorite movies or reruns of the Office. With Erik’s family here she felt like she should be doing more as a hostess. Lord knows that Erik can’t even be hospitable to the girl he was paying to trick his family.

Speaking of his family, “I’m surprised I haven’t seen your parents or brother by now.”

“They left with N’Jadaka to see the Center. So far they’ve only seen the work we’ve done at the Oakland location.”

Fallon had heard of the Oakland location. That was the first Outreach Center created by Erik and his family. Because of its distance though Fallon didn’t hear much about it from any of her coworkers. It was very much an out of sight out of mind situation. She cursed her laziness when it came to learning about the people she worked for. Maybe if she’d taken time out to do some actual research she wouldn’t have been blindsided by Erik’s family being literal royalty.

“I wish I had something for us to do together since it’s just the two of us.” Fallon stared into Erik’s electronics-laden living room. She knew nothing about video games and, if she were being honest, Fallon doubted she and Shuri had any common shows or movies they could watch together. What did teenagers even like?

An awkward silence settled between them. Shuri looked at her mess of wires and metal pieces longingly. At least, that’s what Fallon assumed she was feeling. Personally, she was dreaming about hiding out in her room and knitting until Erik and his family came back to take some of the social pressure off.

“Well,” Shuri hedged, “What did you have planned today?”

“Normally I knit but I don’t think you-”

“Wow, you really do knit? N’Jadaka said you’re like a Disney Princess but I didn’t know you knew how to knit too!” Shuri’s face was split in half by her dazzling smile.

Fallon smiled back in reflex but her mind snagged on the fact that Erik had compared her to a Disney Princess. It was just then she’d never heard Erik refer to her as anything. To her face, he acted like she barely existed unless she cooked or he wanted to mess with her. Well no, that wasn’t fair. When they’d first met he’d certainly acted like she hadn’t existed even if they entered the same room together. Since they’d started living together he was simply….different.

Erik wasn’t nice in even the kindest use of the word. He could be caring, like setting up the lights for Fallon when he knew she was mad at him. And he could be a complete ass, like moving her out of her warm spot on the couch or laughing at her when she fell down. But Erik had never hurt her. He seemed as if he was so aware of his strength that he was always trying not to hurt her.

“I don’t know about that but I make scarves every year for the Toy and Coat Drive down at the Center.” As the words came out of mouth a smile began to build on Shuri’s face. By the time Fallon had finished her sentence Shuri was outright cheesing at her.

“I thought you and N’Jadaka started dating six months ago?” Shuri asked innocently. Well, the words would have been innocent if not for the knowing smile still stretched across her face.

Fallon opened her mouth to correct her, then stopped with her mouth still wide open. Had she been caught? No way. It was only day two! She’d expected to get found either right before or right after Christmas. Panic flickered across Fallon’s face before she could school her features into something more ambiguous.

“Why do I have the feeling that with or without that slip up you already knew that I knitted scarves for the Toy and Coat Drive?”

Shuri shrugged adorably, “N’Jadaka couldn’t tell me he suddenly had a girlfriend just when my parents were looking at marriage candidates. Plus, he’s not that smart. I mean c’mon, fake girlfriend?” She waved a hand up and down, “How could I not do more research?”

Fallon knew the jig was up but she didn’t feel like a failure or scared of the outcome. Obviously, Shuri had known for some time that Fallon wasn’t who Erik said she was. If she’d wanted to ruin their scheme or turn Fallon in she’d have done it already.

“You know he’s always talking about how smart you are. When do you think he’ll realize you’re already smarter than he is?” Fallon smiled.

Shuri shook her head, “I don’t know. I’ve been outsmarting him and my brother since I was eight years old. I’ve given up on them.”

They both shared a laugh at that. Fallon could see it in her head perfectly. Tiny little Shuri, chasing after the only big brothers she’s ever known and raining terror down on their lives. As cute as she is now Fallon is sure Shuri’s brown eyes must have been devastating when she was a little girl.

“I know I wasn’t doing that good a job at pretending but do you think we can keep the fact that you know between us? It’ll mess with Erik’s head if he thinks he doesn’t have all of you completely fooled.” Fallon led Shuri back to her spot in the living room with the mess of electronics.

Shuri glanced at Fallon curiously, “If you think it’s for the best. Why does it matter?”

Fallon smiled down at Shuri, “Erik’s only doing this whole fake girlfriend thing because he really cares about what you and your parents think of him. He doesn’t want to disappoint your parents and he doesn’t want you worrying about him.”

While Shuri digested her words, Fallon pulled the knitting she’d stashed in the side of the couch from its hiding place.

“Oh my god!” Shuri gasped. She hopped up onto the couch until she was sitting shoulder to shoulder to Fallon. “You’re about to knit, aren’t you? I’ve always wondered what it looked like up close?”

Fallon glanced at Shuri, “You’ve always wanted to see someone string yarn together?” This from the teenager that created all of the high-tech gadgets they used in the Science department at the Center.

Shuri rolled her eyes, “Knitting is a skill. You don’t have to be super intelligent or super talented, this is something you develop all on your own.”

Fallon shrugged. Whatever floats her boat. It didn’t sound quite right, but who was she to judge?

“I could teach you? I learned from Youtube videos but I’ve heard it’s easier to learn with a teacher.” Fallon extended a second set of knitting needles and an unfinished scarf.

Shuri beamed at her, “That’d be great! And hey who knows, maybe I can teach you how to rewire you-”

Fallon placed a hand on Shuri’s knee, “Don’t. I’m more likely to electrocute myself than learn how to rewire anything. We’ll figure out something else for you teach me.”


	21. Chapter 21

Fallon can’t stop thinking about her conversation with Shuri for the rest of the day. Knowing that the teen had known she and Erik were faking the whole time had her re-examining her words. She’d made it sound as if it was significant that Erik ran all three of the West Coast branches in LA instead one of the other locations.

During their brief attempt at getting to know each other Erik mentioned that he grew up in Oakland. The Outreach Program was the brainchild of T'Challa and Erik but the whole family was involved. If Oakland was where he grew up and Oakland was the first Center they opened then why was he based in LA?

More importantly, when had Erik noticed anything about her to talk about her to Shuri? Trying to think of any possible answer that could explain why Erik called her a Disney Princess kept her distracted up until Erik got home.

T'Challa and Erik were deeply engrossed in a conversation about the Center as they walked through the front door. Ramonda and T'Chaka greeted Fallon warmly but didn’t linger near her for long. As soon as they politely could they went to talk to Shuri. She was sitting on the couch wrapped and yarn and glaring at the mess where her scarf should be.

Fallon hovered near the door while T'Challa and Erik took off their coats. She was just generally being in the way and Erik kept shooting her weird looks. He knew about her anxiety by now but this type of manic energy fueling her wasn’t in the normal direction her moods swung. Fallon couldn’t help herself. She was trying to study him. His words and his actions were always different than what she expected they’d be.

Maybe he secretly had a crush on her for all this time and she’d never even known it? It wouldn’t be the first time Fallon had been blind to someone’s feelings for her. But if that was the case then she’s sure he would have made a move by now. Erik wasn’t known for being shy with his feelings and wants. If he wanted her he could have just come right out and told her.

A month ago she would have laughed in his face. Fuck! She had laughed in his face. All those days ago at the start of the month, Erik asked her to go to lunch with and she hadn’t hesitated to say no. But things were different now. Fallon had more information to add to the picture of Erik Stevens in her head and he’s far from the fuckboy she’d pegged him as. He could be caring and sweet and he ate her food like it was his last meal. That last part was especially important.

“You just gon’ stand there in the way or do you have something to say to me?” Erik snapped. The words didn’t have any bite to them but T'Challa, Ramonda, and T'Chaka glared at him.

“N'Jadaka!” Ramonda hissed, “Did I raise you to speak that way?”

Erik clenched his jaw and shook his head. When his eyes flicked back to Fallon he nodded his head at her.

“I wanted to ask if you’d be interested in making gingerbread houses,” She turned to open the question to the rest of the room, “I make the cookies myself and cut them into different shapes. We can group up and even vote on the best one before we eat them.”

Shuri looked excited and tangled. T'Chaka was helping her unspool knotted yarn from between her fingers and around his wrist. He nodded once and fixed Fallon with kind eyes, “I have never made a gingerbread house before,”

Ramonda was still eyeing Erik when she spoke, “I suppose if it is a Christmas tradition then we can give it our best effort.”

T'Challa offered a light shrug, “I’m okay with it. Although I must confess that we’ve never made gingerbread houses before. Erik?”

Fallon made her eyes big and pouted in Erik’s direction. He’d be just the sort of party pooper to allow them to do all the hard work and then enjoy himself a few candies or a cookie once they were done. If he backed out she’d have to work by herself which she didn’t mind but it would look bad Gingerbread house making was the perfect opportunity to see for herself if Erik actually had feelings for her or if she was letting her imagination get the better of her.

Erik glared at her, “Yo what I tell you about that poutin’ shit,” he pointed a finger, “You can’t get your way all the time.”

In a bold move that surprised no one more than herself, Fallon grabbed Erik’s finger and used it to pull herself closer to his body. When their chests pressed together she gripped his hand in both of her palms and turned the intensity of her pout up to 100.

“It’ll be fun! Please, Erik? I never got to make a gingerbread house with my family. And up until recently, I spent most Christmas’ alone so what’s the point of making a whole cookie house I couldn’t finish?”

Erik’s face contorted as he looked at her. The emotions in his eyes were both heated and resentful. He was too smart not to know she was milking her sad childhood for all it was worth. The fact that his whole family was watching too was a lucky but nice touch to strengthen her case. Erik was always threatening that pouting would get her nowhere. We’ll see about that. 

“Fine!” Erik broke with an eye roll. Fallon let him go to celebrate her victory but didn’t get far before Erik was grabbing her by the waist and pulling her back into his chest.

When he spoke Erik murmured the words into her ear, sending a shiver down her spine, “Don’t think I ain’t notice what you do to me,” he said, “Better come up with a new trick.”

Fallon blinked in surprise. The low timbre in his voice made butterflies erupt in her stomach. She had no time to react before he pressed a kiss against her temple and stepped past her to join his family on the couch.

“A-alrighty then,” Fallon’s voice wobbled. Clearing her throat she faced the family with a bright smile, “I need two helpers for the actual cookie making and then we can break into three groups of two for the assembling,”

Shuri cried out with joy once her father finally detangled her from the yarn, “I’ll help you, Fallon. Now that I can use my fingers again.”

“Great anyone else?” Fallon cast her eyes around the room. T'Challa and Erik were again locked into their conversation about the Center. T'Chaka was now playing with the yarn and needles himself.

Ramonda rose from her seat with grace and smoothed out her skirt, “I’ll help you, dear. The men and their short attention spans are of better use to us outside the kitchen.”

Fallon beamed at her. Ramonda was just elegant and queenly. Erik’s aunt was the last person she expected to volunteer. No matter what made them volunteer Fallon was happy to have their help. She wanted to get to know Shuri and spend more time with Ramonda. Making cookies together will be the ultimate bonding experience.

“Shuri, go into Er-our room and get my craft bag. I have a few handmade molds in there we can use for fun shapes to go with our gingerbread houses.”

Fallon and Ramonda began making the cookie dough and Shuri returned with Fallon’s molds and a smile that instantly set her on edge. Shuri was crafty, she had to be with two older brothers. That craftiness would be fun to admire when Fallon wasn’t certain that it would be affecting her at some point in the near future.

They divided the work equally between the three of them and soon enough they had several sheets of cooling gingerbread cookie. Fallon handled making the icing herself. There needed to be enough for them to create the gingerbread structure and decorate. Erik let himself into the kitchen then. T’Challa and Shuri were playing a video game while T’Chaka sipped on coquito and watched them. Ramonda had retired to her room to change for dinner.

They were utterly alone in the kitchen, not counting the gingerbread men cooling on the counter. Erik sidled up close to Fallon and practically towered over her. The heat in his gaze and coming off his body had her rooted to the spot.

“How was your day with Shuri,” he asked lowly.

Fallon’s eyes fell to his lips as the words were spoken with his deep voice. She caught herself just as she started swaying toward him. She turned the move into a turn, putting his chest at her shoulder and facing the counter. There was protection in the still warm gingerbread cookies. If she didn’t look away from the gingerbread cookies she could have this conversation without letting her ideas about what Erik might feel for her and her own attraction to him come out in her voice.

“It was nice. We ate breakfast together and spent the morning knitting in front of the tv.” Fallon smiled to herself.

Shuri had been bursting with stories about her lab in Wakanda and the home where she and Erik grew up. She described Wakanda with such vibrant language but it wasn’t long before she was pushing Fallon to tell her about her life growing up in California. It made her wish that she’d had a better childhood. If only to have something to share with Shuri they way the teen had shared with her.

“That’s good.” Erik lingered for a bit. He attempted to sneak cookies but Fallon’s spoon got to his hands before his hands could get to her cookies.

“What do you think of my Aunty,” Erik put a hand on her hip, momentarily distracting her. He snatched up a cookie with a hand he slipped behind her back.

“Sweetie no!” Fallon tried to grab for the cookie but Erik was faster. He used the hand on her hip to pull her into his chest just as she lunged for the cookie he was stealing. She came up short but a swipe of her hand sent the cookie flying into the air and then smashing to the ground. A leg snapped off while the rest of the body went skidding across the floor.

Fallon picked up the wounded gingerbread man and his severed leg mournfully. Turning to Erik, pout in full effect, she thrust the remains of her perfect cookie person at its murderer, “You broke it,”

Erik put his hands on his hips, “It was just a cookie, you have six more right there and all those scraps over there can make more right?”

“You murdered him and I saved those scraps for you!” Fallon pointed at a bowl piled high with already baked gingerbread scraps.

She went a little detailed when it came to her gingerbread design so there were all these odd unusable shapes that crisped up perfectly in the oven. Right before they started building the houses together she was going to hand Erik a bowl of the scraps and beg him not to touch anything.

Erik’s face went sheepish, his eyebrows raised and his broad shoulders hunched towards his eyes, “Shit, baby. My bad.” He put his arms out awkwardly and for a moment Fallon was too confused to pile on the guilt.

Was he trying to…hug her?

“Admit that you broke it,” Fallon demanded.

Erik took a step towards her, “I broke it, I’m sorry.”

“Because you were greedy,” Fallon continued.

Erik paused, glared, then stepped closer, “Because….I was greedy.”

Fallon beamed at him then. She crossed the short distance between him and handed him the broken cookie.

“I don’t know why you think you have to sneak food. When have I ever not thought of you, no matter what I’m making?” Fallon’s timer dinged and she focused in on the next part of the baking processes.

Since she was baking the cookies in batches, she had to keep rotating trays in and out. This meant multiple cookies but also multiple timers because she was using both racks in the oven. Luckily she’d gotten the bigger, structural pieces out of the way before baking the details. This not only cut down on cooling time but it made it easier to expect the timer because each batch had a 15-minute difference between them. That difference shrunk as the pieces that she baked got smaller.

Once the cookie sheets were switched out and the still hot cookies transferred to the cooling racks Fallon felt Erik’s warm hands on her hips. He pressed the heat of his front against Fallon’s back and rested his chin on her head. He rested there until Fallon began transferring cooled cookies into three separate parts. His arms fully wound themselves around her waist and Erik dipped his lips to speak into her ear.

“Are there any leftovers from breakfast?”

Fallon tried to answer but realized she couldn’t because she was smiling too hard. Erik was kind of cute when he wasn’t getting on her nerves. Having him linger around in the kitchen while she cooked had become one of her favorite parts of the day. Having him touch her.

“I saved you a few slices of ham. The pancakes are cold but they're there if you want them.”

Erik hissed a triumphant, “Yes,” into her ear and then released her to go rifle through the fridge. Fallon couldn’t even laugh, her cheeks already hurt too much from smiling.

_He likes me._

Once all the cookies were out and cooled Fallon loaded Erik up with several trays and led him into the living room.

“We’re going to set the table but go ahead and start settling into groups” Fallon spoke cheerfully but didn’t linger. She still had to get all the frosting and candy out. Erik helped with the set up as much as he could. To be honest he was in the way more than he helped but Fallon recognized the gesture. But if he bumped into her in the entryway of the kitchen one more time she was gonna start snipping those locs on his head.

While in the kitchen frantically plating the remaining gingerbread mean on a pretty platter Fallon heard Shuri call for her from the other room. Grabbing the plate of gingerbread cookies, Fallon hurried to see what the teen wanted but was stopped abruptly buy Erik’s bulk. She managed to save any cookies from falling or getting crushed but she couldn’t even move him out of the way before she heard Shuri giggling from the dining room table.

“Fallon looks, I found some mistletoe in your crafts bag. The ribbon on hit was so pretty I wanted to show Umama and Baba.” Shuri pointed at Fallon and Erik with a delighted gleam in her brown eyes.

Fallon glanced at Erik, expected to see the sprig of mistletoe poking out of his shirt pocket or something. When she found nothing she looked back and Shuri and found that she and the whole Udaku clan was smiling like maniacs. Well, as close to manic as Ramonda, T’Chaka, and T’Challa ever got. She couldn’t figure out what they were staring at or what was so funny until T’Challa, bless him, shifted his eyes above her head and then back at her face. He did this two more times and it took Fallon just as long to realize that he wanted her to look up.

Which is why she immediately didn’t. Instead, Fallon tried to back step into the kitchen. Her retreat was once stopped by an Erik shaped barrier. This time their collision sent another gingerbread cookie right off her decorative plate and onto the hardwood floors. The damage was worse than just a leg popping off. This time the head of the gingerbread man snapped into and the torso split.

Fallon couldn’t even turn to glare at him for killing another one of her gingerbread men. At this rate, someone at their table won’t have any gingerbread people in front of their gingerbread house. If Fallon were a better hostess she’d forfeit two of her own cookies so that they could have some to decorate. But she wasn’t that good of a hostess and she’d been practicing icing designs all week. She deserved this!

“Isn’t it tradition to kiss when under the mistletoe, Fallon?” Shuri asked innocently. Fallon was beginning to hate the face of innocence.

“I should get these cookies on the table so we can start decorating,” Fallon changed the direction of her retreat towards the family still cheesing at her from the dining room table. She didn’t get far. In a move that was too synchronized to be real, T’Challa grabbed the plate of cookies for her right before her forward momentum ended and Erik pulled her back into his chest. Under the doorway, with mistletoe.

“Why you runnin' baby? You can’t tell me you never wondered what it would feel like?” The last sentence was spoken right into Fallon’s ear. Her whole body felt alive at the press of his lips against her earlobe. The sensation was too much. Just against her ear, it was too much.

Fallon steeled herself. She was being paid $40,000 for this moment right here. There was even a slight chance of that 40 turning into a 60 if Erik agreed to what she’d added because of his stupidity. The only problem with her method to calm herself? The fact that the $40,000 was so far away and his family was expecting a kiss right now.

Erik didn’t allow her to stall any longer. He turned her gently until her back was to his family. His finger locked together at the small of her back, trapping her against his muscular chest. Erik filled her field of vision. All she could see was him. All she could feel was him. Instead of being terrifying the thought of them being the only two people in the room calmed her down faster. She was comfortable around Erik he’d seen her at her worst with that panic attack and had swooped in like a hero to make her feel better.

“Just focus on me, okay? That’s all you got to do baby,” Erik’s lips hovered above her own. Fallon allowed her eyes to close, letting herself get lost in the feeling of safety that immediately surrounded her.

When Erik’s lips pressed against Fallon’s she let out a soft gasp. His lips were the softest things she’d ever felt in her life. They were warm and plush and this close to him Fallon could smell the sweet musk of his cologne. Erik was the one who deepened the kiss. She could have lived forever in just the press of their lips but when he moved forever became eternity. He coaxed her into matching his rhythm, stroking and nibbling on her bottom lip until she opened her mouth and allowed him to slip his tongue inside.

“N’Jadaka, save some for later eh? We want to make gingerbread houses.”T’Chaka gave a hearty chuckle.

Just like that, the moment was over. Eternity ended and Fallon found herself back in her own body and thoroughly disoriented. Erik was laughing about something. T’Challa was speaking. Fallon couldn’t hear anything beyond her own heartbeat and the harmony it was creating with the thudding coming from Erik’s chest.

At some point during their kiss, he’d lifted her off the group to stand at his full height. When Erik set her down again Fallon had to lean against him for support because he knees felt literally weak. It was Erik who led both of them to the dining room table. While Erik and his family sorted through the cookie shapes and pieces, Fallon tried once again to wrap her mind around what had just happened.


	22. Chapter 22

Fallon won the gingerbread house contest because of her strange decorations. Erik contributed to the cause by eating the candy and cookies from the other teams. So it was a successful group effort that ended in a dinner of spicy roasted cauliflower, saffron rice, and fish. T'Chaka, Erik, and Shuri were the only ones with an appetite after dinner so the three of them attacked the gingerbread houses while Ramonda, T'Challa, and Fallon rested on the couch.

T'Challa had knocked out on the couch pretty quickly after dinner. He looked adorable and remarkably like Erik with his head tipped back and mouth slightly open. With him, unconscious and her husband, daughter, and nephew still snacking on candy Ramonda and Fallon had a rare moment to themselves.

“Fallon, may I speak honestly with you for a second?” Ramonda placed a hand on Fallon’s knee to catch her attention. At some point, Fallon had gotten lost in the way Erik put away sweets and cookies. He was double fisting a glass of milk and a gingerbread cookie sandwich filled with gummies and frosting.

It was both magnificent and disgusting but Fallon couldn’t look away.

“Huh?” She snapped back into the moment in time to see a knowing smile cross the older woman’s face. Fallon didn’t know what was in the water over in Wakanda but Ramonda was one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen in her life.

Erik and T'Challa were both equally and differently handsome and Shuri had her own brand of mischievous cuteness that Fallon would bottle if she could. Even T'Chaka still all the grace and old man swag he probably had in his prime. Ramonda was radiant. She’d obviously been raised to be a queen, what else could explain the level of poise and grace she exuded at all times?

“Of course, we can talk…er honestly.” Fallon stumbled her way through the sentence with a growing cringe, “I’m sorry I’m usually more articulate than this,”

Ramonda smiled warmly, “When my nephew told me that he’d been seeing you six months ago, I was…suspicious.” The hand she had on Fallon’s knee moved to grip her hands in a tight clasp, “Nothing against you dear. I raised N'Jadaka myself. I like to think I know him very well and my nephew has never done well with figures of authority.”

Fallon hoped that she didn’t look as lost as she felt. The conversation was perfectly pleasant, so far, but it felt like at any second it could take a turn into bad territory.”

Ramonda continued, if she saw Fallon’s confusion she didn’t comment, “N'Jadaka has known what his role in serving Wakanda would entail. I allowed him his years of youthful oat sowing. I supported his transition to America for his degree.” Ramonda sniffed and it was obvious how she felt about that particular compromise.

“I bring all this up not to give you a history lesson. My husband and I allowed N'Jadaka his freedom I the hopes that when the time came for him to serve his country he would do his duty without the usual…dramatics.” She waved her hand in the air as if she sensed a bad smell.

“I approached my nephew several months ago about scheduling time to come home for matchmaker meetings and he tells me that he already has a girlfriend.” Ramonda’s eyes had drifted into the distance during her monologue. At the word girlfriend, they snapped back to Fallon with a sharpness that made her flinch. Not that she could go far, Ramonda still had both of her hands in a tight grip.

“Naturally I was going to have you investigated and vetted. Men often think with the head between their legs instead of the head on the shoulders. My nephew has never been one of those men but,” sighed.

“It was T'Challa and Shuri who convinced me to meet you before casting you off as unworthy of my nephew. N'Jadaka is not one to shower praise or endearments. My nephew is a loner in the truest meaning of the word.”

Fallon’s heart had started pounding right around the time Ramonda mentioned having her investigated and hasn’t stopped since. Good god, did everyone in this family know Erik was a liar who lies on Christmas when he first told them about her? She never really had a shot did she? Shit! Did that mean she wasn’t getting paid?

“Through T'Challa I learned of your commitment to the Center. That organization is very near and dear to my family so that was a mark in your favor. Meeting you has also done much to change the opinion I’d had about you.” Ramonda confessed, “You’re taking care of my nephew who, let’s face it, is not the kindest man on the planet. You bring out a side of him I’ve never seen before.”

Ramonda’s lips curl up into a smile, “You make him act like a silly boy, and it’s so funny to watch. As a child, he was so serious. He’s held a lot on his shoulders for a long time. I always feared that no amount of love and protection from his family could ever erase the trauma he went through.”

“So thank you Fallon, and if this goes as I hope, welcome to the family.” Before Fallon could say anything, Ramonda squeezed her into a close hug. After she let her go, Ramonda stood up and turned towards her husband and daughter.

“I’d say we should head to bed but I doubt you two will sleep with all that sugar in your veins,” She herded them towards the bedrooms anyway and big Erik and Fallon goodnight.

It probably wasn’t the nicest thing to do but Erik and Fallon left T'Challa snoring on the couch after cleaning up the gingerbread remains. Erik actually stuck around to help her wash dishes. It was…nice. When they curled into bed together Erik kept up the near constant contact he’d initiated all day. His arm locked around her waist and his chest pressed against her back. The instant warmth had her slipping into sleep as soon as her head hit her pillow.

“Hey Fallon,” said lowly into the skin on her shoulder.

“Hmm,”

“Thank you for this. My family really looks like they’re having a good time and that’s all because of you.”

She woke up a little more when he said that. In her expectations when agreeing to be his fake girlfriend Fallon never expected him to ever thank her for it. Serves her right though. She could admit now that she’d been wrong about him.

“You know,” Fallon cleared the sleep from her throat, “Your family really loves you, Erik. I don’t know much about being apart of a royal family. I don’t know what expectations were put on you as a kid. But I do know that they love you and even if they had married you off they would have found someone you at least liked.”

Erik was silent after she spoke but Fallon could tell by his breathing that he was still awake. She allowed him his silence and enjoyed the delightful feeling of sleeping in the same bed as someone else. She didn’t think she’d been starved of touch as a kid but whenever Erik touched her it felt so good. The feeling of being held and kissed was becoming addicting.

“If I got married I’d have to return to Wakanda. I couldn’t run the Center on location anymore,” Erik’s voice had that same low quality as before. It felt like his version of whispering.

“Well, why would that have to be permanent. I’m sure if you had the right wife-”

“It wouldn’t be right to take her away from Wakanda. You don’t know what it’s like there. The country, its people, they’re really tied to the land. They’re close-knit. As a kid it kinda got lonely being the only American in a room full of Wakandan’s.”

Fallon felt the need shift as Erik shook his head, “If I pledge to protect you and make you happy I can’t make you go through that feeling of being a foreigner. Abezizwe,” he whispered, “Outsider,”

She didn’t know what to say to that but she understood the feeling he talked about. After her mother got married to get stepdad her mother and his kids became the Chisms. She was the outsider named King. Once it was established that she was not a Chism it was like open season for her stepdad and his family to take turns putting her down and being toxic.

Fallon linked their fingers together and pulled Erik’s arm even tighter around her body. “Marry an American then. After I’m gone get Ramonda to set you up with an American that could strengthen your relationship with the country.”

Erik snorted, “Yeah she’d probably go for that if I sold it the right way.”

The conversation dropped off after that. Without Erik’s voice in her ear keeping her up, Fallon fell asleep instantly. She’d never thought of herself as a person who liked to cuddle but snuggled in Erik’s arms she’d cut the person who tried to get her to move.

Christmas morning Fallon woke up to Shuri’s knees knocking into her hip. The teen was hopping on the bed and screaming, “Its Christmas guys! Wake up!” Fallon started laughing and would have joined her in the jumping if not for Erik’s death grip on her hip. He glared at his cousin with sleepy eyes. His lips were tight and thin as he scowled.

“Get the fuck out my room-”

“You promised me an American Christmas!” Shuri picked up a pillow and started whacking Erik with it.

He growled and made a swipe at the pillow but kept missing and ended up getting whacked for his efforts.

“Shuri I’m not playin with -” whack! “You don’t want me to get up or I-” whack! “Aight then fuck it!” Erik launched himself up and sent blankets and pillows flying. Fallon made her escape just as he grabbed two pillows and launched them with enough force to make her wince right at Shuri’s head.

The fight only got more brutal from there. Fallon skipped around the edges of their battlefield to get to the bathroom. Mostly because she had to pee and her morning breath was deadly. But getting away from the crossfire of Erik and Shuri’s pillow fight was a cool bonus. She didn’t emerge from the bathroom until both Erik and Shuri excited the room, no doubt to go ambush T'Challa.

Fallon checked to make sure Erik wouldn’t make a sudden return to the bedroom before she pulled her knitting supplies under from under his bed. While Shuri struggled to knit one scarf Fallon put the finishing touches on Erik’s blanket. It was gray with a chunky knit and absolutely gorgeous despite homemade. When she started making it on some strange impulse Fallon intended for it to be his Christmas gift. But it was too perfect not to wrap up nice and pretty.

After Christmas, she’d be going back to her apartment and a better job, $40,000 richer, and somehow in love with Erik Stevens. Maybe, without the pressure to act like a couple for his family they could go out to lunch and just enjoy each other. The thought brought a smile to her face. Here she was planning to actually date the man she’d called community dick like a month ago.

Nicole was going to freak!

“Fallon!” The call of her name had her quickly hiding the wrapped present under Erik’s bed and running to the living room.

The scene she found was not at all what she expected. Erik stood in front of the tree smiling at her, which set off alarm bells in her head immediately. Fallon had never seen Erik smile. He smirked, he laughed at you, and every now and the corners of his mouth would twitch. The expression on his face was a smile but it was the kind of smile you saw on toothpaste ads. Just big and fake.

T'Chaka and Ramonda stood on one side of the couch with Shuri. They were beaming, the looks on their faces a lot more genuine. Shuri looked as surprised as Fallon felt yet even she smiled. T'Challa was standing near Erik with a look on his face that matched swirling pit in her stomach. Something was about to happen, and everyone knew what it was except her.

“Baby could you come over here for a sec.” The sentence that came out of Erik’s lips didn’t sound like a request or statement. One way or another he was going to get her in front of that tree.

A terrifying inkling if what he might do next settled into her gut. Fallon took a shuffling step forward, then another. She moved slowly to give anyone a chance to stop what she hoped he wasn’t going to do. Eventually, though, she stood in front of him. She trembled in her reindeer onesie, causing the bell in the front to jingle into the silence that hung thick in the air.

“Fallon King, the first time I met you, you were dressed like a sunflower.” His smile slipped and looked genuine for a hot second, “You had on this…skirt. It looked like petals. Your hair was all big and picked out. That day, you looked like my own personal drop of sunshine. And you would not give me the time of day,”

Fallon remembered that outfit. She’d been touring the Center before her first official day and literally bumped into Erik outside the cafeteria. She’d never been able to get the stain from his coffee out of the fabric. Of course, Erik at the time hadn’t noticed the stain at all. She’d caught him staring at her legs then her ass when trying to clean herself up.

Yeah, after that first meeting Fallon had made it her mission to never be in the same room as Erik for longer than she had to. Has he really liked her since then? Or is the story just another lie to his family?

“Erik,” Fallon croaked out. The rest of her sentence was caught in her throat when he sunk down on one knee.

He was doing it. He was going to marry her to stay in the country. She’d mentioned marrying an American like a dumbass. Fallon hadn’t seriously pictured him marrying someone else. A stupid part of her had hoped they could but this lying to his family shit behind them and….and what? Did they even have anything between them beyond this lie and forced cohabitation? How would she know when he was really being with her because he wanted her?

This whole “help me lie to my family so I won’t be married off” schtick could have been a double con. One to hold off his Aunts matchmaking and the other to finally get her to sleep with him. It felt too awful to be true yet here was Erik, literally proposing to her in front of his whole family.

She felt a tickle in the back of her throat. Soon enough there’s not enough air getting to her lungs. Fallon stood there in front of the Christmas tree staring down at the man she was just starting to believe she might be in love with and all she can do is take raspy breath after raspy breath.

Erik’s brown eyes were studying her so intently he realized Fallon was slipping into a panic attack before anyone else when she starts full-blown hyperventilating. He sets the ring back in his pocket and stands up from the one kneed crouch he’d settle into to propose to her.

Even though he towers over her, Erik manages to not crowd her. With one hand on her arm, Erik leads Fallon over to the couch and helps her sit down because all she can manage to do is suck in air so thin she’d have more luck breathing underwater.

“T man could you go get her some water? The colder the better,” Erik gripped Fallon’s numb, ice cold fingers in one hand and rubbed her back with the other.

“Breathe, baby” Erik tried to coax her into matching his breathing pattern but at the sound of his voice, Fallon started to shove him away.

“You don’t get to call me that,” She gasped between ever shallow breath, “You keep lying to me, you used me. I was starting to think you were a good man,” Fallon sucked in a choking gasp of air. Erik began reaching for her again but Fallon moved faster.

She stood from the couch and lurched to the hallway with the bedrooms. She was aware of all the eyes on her. T’Challa stood the closest, holding a cloudy glass of water and looking as concerned for her as the rest of his family. Fallon couldn’t even bring herself to look Ramonda in the eye, she respected her too much.

Pointing to T’Challa with shaking hands, “You’re…driving me out of here,” Fallon gasped out. She held the man’s stare until he nodded. Then she once again started the stop and go trek to Erik’s room.

“You can’t leave the house like this Fallon! Where are you gonna go?” Erik hovered close like he thought she was in danger of falling. Little did he know Fallon was being powered by the one thing that had made her able to move out of the only home she’d ever known and leave the only family she’d ever had at 16 years old. Hurt, a little bit of fear, and a burning need to get as far away from the cause of all that hurt and fear as soon as possible.

“Okay, so I took your idea to heart but did you not tell me to my face that you didn’t even like me? I didn’t have a shot with you but if I did have a shot I wanted to take it now.” Erik wasn’t pleading or begging exactly. He sounded like a man cornered. Only instead of apologizing and begging for forgiveness, he was burying himself deeper in the very crime that had hurt her in the first place.

Fallon grabbed her carpet bag and began shoving as many of the items she owned inside while still gasping and choking on perfectly good air. She made peace with the fact that she’d have to leave a lot behind. Her sewing machine, the dress form, all the ornaments, and the kitchen supplies. Erik wasn’t likely to let her back in so she could pick it all up after this. Plus she’d bought it with his money. It was probably for the best if she left it. All those things would turn into memories.

The only memory she wanted of this whole fiasco is a repressed one

Wherever she went Erik shadowed her. She’d finally gotten her breathing mostly under control but she felt suffocated by Erik’s presence.

“You took my job away from me, you took my time!” Fallon took in a deep shuddering breath. Then another, and another until it felt like her lungs were bursting with air. She exhaled all the surface level pain and controlled her volume, “You ate my food. I cook and I bake but you were the first person to make me enjoy cooking for them.” Fallon clutched a lumpy misshapen gift to her chest. Didn’t seem right to give it to him now.

“I knit for you,” she whispered.

“Fallon, I promise you it was just this one last thing! We would have had a long engagement and then called it off before it went too far.” He wrapped his arms around her from behind. He pressed his cheek to the top of her head and wrapped his arms tightly around her. Erik practically crushed her to his chest. Fallon couldn’t even enjoy his familiar warmth or the richness of his cologne. Now every pet name, every sign of affection seemed like something carefully crafted to keep her around or keep his family happy.

“It’s not just the hiding things from me. I get not being able to go around telling people that your family is royal. I understand wanting to run your own life outside of what your family expects from you.” Fallon shook her head. God help her, she did understand it. Erik may have a loving and devoted family, but she understood that even the most loving family can’t help but want to interfere in your life.

“You were willing to use me without a second thought towards how I feel about the whole matter.” Fallon’s heart broke all over again as she said it.

“We’re not really getting married. I just knew-”

“That if you were engaged, especially to an American, your family would wait awhile before asking you to come back.” Fallon finished for him. Erik tensed and went silent behind her, “I know everything, remember?”

She shrugged his touch off her shoulders, closed her carpet bag, and left Erik and the gift in the room. As she passed Ramonda and T’Chaka, Fallon made sure to apologize. She couldn’t meet Shuri’s eyes but she made sure to hug her and let her know that she hoped they kept in touch. She didn’t know if she’d ever forgive Erik for bringing such a beautiful, intelligent, young woman into her life and then taking her away. 

“Now you keep knitting. Practice makes perfect.” Fallon quickly hugged Shuri goodbye one last time and then hurried to T’Challa. He nodded solemnly towards her but his eyes snagged on her bag.

“I’ll come to get the rest later,” she lied, “I just want to get out of here.”

T’Challa sent her a look that said he seriously doubted she’d do anything like that. Then he motioned at the beaded bracelet on his wrist. The kimoyo beads came to life and Erik spoke a few short words of a language Fallon didn’t know or understand. Next thing she knew a troop of the Dora Milaje marched through the house.

“They will gather your things and ensure they meet you at your destination.” T’Challa held the door open for her and without a glance back Fallon left Erik’s house.


	23. Chapter 23

T'Challa offers the use of his family’s jet but Fallon’s stomach is still recovering from the sucker punch of Erik’s actions. T'Challa snags Erik’s keys off a nearby table and together, he and Fallon get into Erik’s flashy car. As they drive off, she tries to focus on the horizon and city skyline. Looking back at Erik’s house and the lights he put up just for her was impossible.

For a while, they drove in mutual silence. Fallon didn’t know T'Challa’s reason for silence but she appreciated. If she had to talk, about Erik, about that mess of a proposal she’d start crying uncontrollably. T'Challa was a nice guy but they didn’t have the kind of relationship that would make venting and crying about his cousin and business partner okay.

“May I…” T'Challa spoke softly, “I need the address for where you’re going. Do you have a friend you can go to?”

Fallon sniffed, “Yes, my friend Nicole. I’ll set up the GPS,”

Bank to silence. Only now it was punctuated by the soft female voice of her GPS, navigating them from Erik’s house to the freeway into the city. Fallon couldn’t think. Her mind wanted to replay Erik’s actions over and over again but she knew that it was the ticket to madness. Instead, she sat in the passenger seat, biting her lip to hold back her tears.

“I’m sorry that your Christmas turned into this…” T'Challa had no idea what to call their situation. His cousin, in a series of stupid decisions, managed to make her fall for him while lying to his family about how they met and the realities of their relationship.

Hell, what relationship. She was just a glorified maid. His ticket to staying in America so he could continue his work at the Center.

“It’s not your fault,” Fallon swiped away an errant tear.

Silence rang in the car for a beat, “Unless…it is your fault,”

T'Challa stayed silent but there was a wrinkle forming around his eye that Fallon would almost call a wince.

“T'Challa,” Fallon aimed the Stare at the side of the man’s face. Erik had buckled almost immediately when she deployed the look at him. T'Challa was just as weak as his cousin because it didn’t take long for him to buckle either.

“I may have,” he stroked his chin. The nervous tic gave away more than his even tone of voice.

Fallon clenched her hands into fists, “Explain, quickly. I want all the facts before I lose my shit and cuss out the person driving me an hour into the city.”

T'Challa looked very uncomfortable then. He shifted in his seat and readjusted his grip on the steering wheel a few times before he launched into the story. The whole story.

According to T'Challa Erik had started the flagship Center in Oakland, his hometown. That was his base of operations until he opened the Center they had based in Bakersfield. He worked from the Bakersfield Center until they were fully operational and then appointed a director who would answer to him when he returned to Oakland. This was what was supposed to happen when he opened the Center in LA.

“Then he met you, and he didn’t want to leave. He told me that he’d tried everything he knew to get you into bed with him but nothing worked. After one year turned into two…” T'Challa sighed.

“During one of our daily calls, I told him that my mother and father were calling in a matchmaker for him. I told him to be earnest and approach you like a gentleman. I knew that if he were with you my mother wouldn’t force him to marry anyone.”

“When did all this happen?” Fallon was no longer close to crying and she wasn’t glaring at T'Challa anymore.

“About, six months ago? I told my cousin to make his move and he told me he would. What I didn’t anticipate was him lying to my parents about dating you for six months.”

“Yeah, Erik has a habit of taking throwaway comments and applying them at the worst moments,” Fallon sounded bitter but she didn’t care. She was pissed that Erik had used her name in his games before telling her. It just added on to how pissed she was for proposing to her on her favorite day of the year to keep his family from marrying him off.

“I am sorry Fallon. I assumed he would try to date you and that would be the end of it. With how much he talked about you I assumed-”

“Erik and I worked on different floors of the building. The first time we met he spilled coffee on my favorite skirt and instead of apologizing he started at my ass,” Fallon shook her head, “I didn’t even know he liked me until all this. If he ever liked me.”

T'Challa tilted his head towards her, “I know my cousin, he may be a lot of things-

“Like a lying liar that lies on Christmas?”

T'Challa shot her a look. Then he shook his head once and continued, “Erik never faked how he felt about you. Take it from the man who had to sit through conversations about what your outfit of the day was for two years. He may have made a huge mistake by proposing to you, but despite his motives, his heart was in the right place.”

Fallon didn’t want T'Challa’s words to penetrate the armor she’d created out of her anger and embarrassment. She was beginning to like him, and he’d used her as an end to a means. She didn’t know if it should matter if he liked her before deciding to use her as a metaphorical green card. All Fallon knew was that Erik had thoroughly disappointed her and broken her trust.

“The way I grew up, I was always unsure of who I could trust. My mother would cut me down about my appearance before breakfast. My stepdad was always trying to use my strained relationship with my mother to get closer to me when no one was around.” Fallon paused because the lump in her throat was threatening to choke her.

“I trust very few people as an adult. And I’m sure you can understand why. What Erik did…it doesn’t matter if he genuinely likes me. He never asked me if I wanted to get married!” A hysterical laugh bubbled in her throat, “He just wanted to be engaged because of your parents. Does that mean we have to get married for your aunt and uncle? Have kids because they’re expecting it?”

“Do you not want those things?”

Fallon squeezed her eyes shut at his words, “I’ve wanted to be a mother my entire life. I never thought of marriage as a girl because the institution never appealed to me.” When she opened her eyes a tear fell onto her cheek, “That doesn’t mean I want my engagement or marriage to be built on a lie to appease other people.”

She doesn’t even know if she wants those things with Erik. Fallon liked him, but she’d just opened up to the idea of seriously dating him this morning. Serves her right though. Catching feelings for a man who was using her as a shield against his family’s expectations would have never panned out. It was good that he’d broken her heart now and not further down the line. Imagine if she’d knitted him a sweater instead of a blanket?

Just the thought made Fallon so morose and angry she pretended to go to sleep so T’Challa would try to talk to her. They had another forty-five minutes of this drive to go. She refused to sit through all forty-five of those minute listening to T’Challa make excuses for Erik. She liked him, and his family despite who his cousin was. If things had turned out a different way Fallon could have seen him being an ally. Now though, he was just the cousin of the man who broke her heart. No matter what he said his loyalties will always lie with Erik first.

The thought shouldn’t have made tears burn in her eyes but it did. Luckily her eyes were closed. No more tears slipped out to betray her for the rest of the ride. They didn’t talk and didn’t turn on the radio. When T’Challa pulled up to the curb in front of Nicole’s apartment it looked like he might say something else in defense of Erik but Nicole didn’t want to hear it. She’d had her life dominated by her man for the majority of the month. Fallon was all Erik-ed out for probably the rest of her life.

She hurried out of the car with the one bag she’d been able to pack and shut the door before T’Challa could call after her. Fallon waved once at T’Challa and then turned to unlock the gate into Nicole’s apartment complex. She couldn’t watch him drive away in Erik’s car. It would feel too much like the end of a chapter that she already felt pretty bitter about. It was time to get back to reality.


	24. Chapter 24

“Why are you standing on my doorstep in a reindeer onesie?” Nicole herself was wearing a onesie too. Only instead of reindeer inspired she looked like an elf.

“I don’t want to talk about it? Can I come in and cry for a few hours?” Fallon sniffed pitifully.

Nicole pouted to match her morose expression, “Of course honey, come on in.” she folded Fallon into a tight hug and walked her into her apartment.

Fallon moped around Nicole’s apartment for days, listless and heartbroken. She didn’t want to knit, didn’t want to sew, and she especially didn’t want to cook. She didn’t eat much, but when she did it was usually take-out forced on her by Nicole. When she didn’t doctor it up the way she usually did with ingredients around the house Nicole called in reinforcements.

“Hey, Fal. How ya doin',” Duncan sat on the coffee table in front of where Fallon lay on the couch. He looked good, cheeks ruddy from the cold that had finally settled over California. His brown hair was hidden under a gray beanie she’d knitted him a few years ago. The sight of the beanie made Fallon think of Erik and the gray blanket she’d knit for him. What a waste.

“I’m fine D, how are you?” Fallon lied badly and she could tell Duncan didn’t believe her. If you looked at her you wouldn’t have believed her either.

Her normally straightened hair was kinkier and dryer than ever. She didn’t have the energy to eat most days let alone bother with her frustratingly long hair. She’d changed out of her reindeer onesie at Nicole’s insistence but now she wore sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt like a second skin. There wasn’t a stitch of makeup on her face. Her skin was dry and dull because she hadn’t gone through her skincare routine in days and crying really dries out your skin.

Basically, she was in breakup mode. And it was ugly.

“You’re really not, doll. How about we shower and see how you’re feeling then?” he offered in a gentle voice.

Fallon buried herself deeper into the couch, “I’m fine where I am thank you.”

Showering meant moving. It meant shitty Los Angeles water pressure and water that ran cold for five minutes into your shower and never really got warm until you were ready to get out. Showering meant looking at herself in the mirror and realizing that she’d fallen in love with Erik Stevens. Showering meant acknowledging that she’d become exactly the kind of woman she talked about back at the office.

Nicole and Duncan shared a look, then Nicole stepped forward from where she was leaning against a wall in her kitchen and gave Fallon a stern look, “Alright look, bitch, I know it hurts. But it’s been five days Fallon. I love you and I want to be there for you but my party is tonight and you’re gonna bring the whole mood down looking like Oscar the Grouch on my couch.”

Fallon winced. Was it New Year’s Eve already? Had she really been moping over Erik for five days? She’d missed the Toy and Coat Drive at the Center. All the scarves she’d knitted for the kids had been left at Erik’s house. T’Challa had promised to get her things from Erik’s but she hadn’t been back to her apartment in days. Nicole had dropped her off once to pick up some more clothes and gather her mail for the month. After seeing the letter from the Center about her promotion and pay increase she’d sort of checked out and gone full sloth on Nicole’s couch.

She couldn’t do this anymore. She was mourning a relationship that was never real in the first place. Her friends were worried about her. Fallon had to pull it together and put on a brave face. Not forever. She was too drained to even think about going back to the way things were. But Nicole’s party was a tradition in their friend group and Fallon would be damned if she was the one who ruined the party for everyone.

“Okay, I’ll shower.” Fallon began sitting up.

“And do something with your hair,” Nicole added. Duncan shot her a sharp look, but she shrugged, “What? It looks like a nest.”

Fallon cleaned up pretty nicely once showered. She looked relatively human in her gold and silver party dress. The dress was a loan from Nicole so it didn’t fit Fallon’s smaller body as well as all of her handmade clothes. Her friend at least looked amazing. They never did get around to that last fitting but the dress Fallon had made Nicole looked beautiful.

To show her friend that she was trying her best, she helped Nicole decorate her apartment. Nothing to her usual standard, just store-bought snacks and store-bought decorations. But by nine o’clock her apartment looked party ready.

By ten o’clock Fallon was ready to go back to her pj’s and cement herself on the couch. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do either. Nicole had taken her pj’s and thrown them away as soon as Fallon took them off. And the couch was occupied by two couples conversing about housing prices in Los Angeles and marriage venues. Not really where Fallon wanted to be at the moment.

She felt like the odd woman out. Single and not really in the mood to party, people avoided her as if they could sense she wouldn’t be a lot of fun. Four of her friends had tried to get a round of shots going but Fallon wasn’t in the mood to get drunk. Her mother used alcohol to cope with her day. She didn’t want to develop a habit of drinking her problems away. 

So she just leaned against one of the walls and anytime it looked like someone might be approaching her for a conversation she slipped around the room and started cleaning up.

Fallon made the rounds with alcohol, filling up everybody’s cup so they wouldn’t notice she’d been nursing the same glass of champagne since the first bottle was opened. Her glass didn’t even have bubbles anymore. After pouring out the last drop in someone’s glass Fallon retreated to the kitchen to pop open two more bottles. She’d thought everyone was busy enjoying the party yet when she turned around after digging in the fridge she found Duncan standing in the kitchen entryway.

“Hey, doll.” he smiled softly. His eyes held concern, and Fallon just knew he was going to ask if she was okay again.

It was pretty much all he could ask. She told neither him nor Nicole about Erik’s botched proposal in front of his family. What could she possibly tell her friends? That she’d gone into this stupid fake relationship for the money and to boost her career and now that she’d gotten the promotion she didn’t even want to work in the same building as the man who broke her heart? 

It’s not like she hadn’t gotten everything he’d promised her in their contract. On day two of living on Nicole’s couch, she’d gotten a notification from her bank to confirm the sixty thousand dollars Erik had sent to her account.

Ultimately Fallon had no one to blame but herself. Duncan and Nicole could say otherwise but she’d known better.

“Having fun?” she began pouring champagne into glasses. She’d do anything to not have to meet Duncan’s eyes.

“Yeah. But you know, Nicole sure knows how to throw a party.” In unison, they looked back at the living room to find their best friend holding another friend by the jaw and pouring Hennessy straight into her mouth. A crowd surrounded them egging and booing the girl on in equal measure.

“You’re not having fun though, are you?” Duncan walked closer to her. He took one of the bottles of champagne she’d opened and began pouring it into glasses too.

“It’s not my day,” Fallon shrugged. This was Nicole’s party. The last thing she needed to do was make this about her.

Duncan chuckled and shook his head, “It’s never your day. When are you gonna start putting yourself first Fal?”

Fallon stared at Duncan in confusion, “What?”

“I mean it. When are you going to do something for yourself? Every time I see you, your knitting sweaters for kids and making food for the homeless.”

“Okay that last one was for charity and you volunteered me.” she made sure to point out. The way he described her made her sound like a saint. And saintly she was not.

“And I bet you still go to the shelter every few weeks to help out don’t you?” Duncan challenged. He cocked one eyebrow at her and dared her to lie to his face.

Fallon stared down at the full glasses in defeat, “I don’t always have time so it’s not every few weeks. Just…when I can get away.” she shook her head, “Anyway why are we talking about this?”

Duncan looked deep into her eyes. He studied her, looking for something, then he took her hand in his and held it. “Because I see my best friend hurting and she refuses to deal with it. If you don’t confront whatever it is that’s making it hard for you to move on from that guy it’s gonna take you a lot longer to heal.” He smiled sadly then, “Trust me.”

Fallon sniffed and squeezed Duncan’s hand, “What makes you think there’s a guy?”

“I’ve never seen you this way before. So it’s either a guy or your family tried to reach out to you again.” Duncan smoothed a lock of her hair away from her face with his thumb. “And I know unrequited love when I see it.”

Fallon let his words sink in. He was wrong about some things and right about others. She wasn’t dealing with the pain Erik caused at all. She was still in love with him, stupidly in love with him. To the point that even though he broke her trust she was worried about what he was eating and if he was sleeping enough. Which is why she was so angry with herself. She needed the money he gave her but she didn’t want it anymore. It felt like a reminder that her brief second of hope that they could have something beyond the fake relationship was just wishful thinking.

“What should I do D? I’ve never felt this way before. He broke my trust, I’ve cut off family members for the same thing and yet I still think about him.”

Fallon buried her face in Duncan’s broad chest. His arms wrapped around her shoulders and he squeezed her close. His touch felt nothing like Erik’s. There was no brain wipe, no fantasy of how soft his lips were or how strong he really was. But it felt comfortable. It felt like home. Her best friend was doing her best and Fallon felt ungrateful that she still wished it were someone else holding her close.

“Look, I can’t tell you what to do about your situation with him. I don’t know the details and -hey look at me, “ Duncan lifted her chin, “I really, really don’t want to know the details.”

Fallon pushed his chest when Duncan started to snicker. She tried to push his shoulder but his snickering turned into actual laughter and he stumbled out of the way. Next thing she knew she was laughing right along with him.

“You asshole that was a touching moment you just ruined. Could have gone on a Hallmark card.” Fallon gave one more half-hearted push at Duncan’s shoulder. She wasn’t really angry. How could she be? He’d made her laugh when the most emotional energy she’d had lately amounted to crying and staring blankly at the tv.

“What I was going to say is that if you feel strongly about him, you should try to make it work.”

“But he-”

“I know, doll. After what you went through with your family I understand your hesitance to trust someone after they hurt you. Sometimes the people we love hurt us and it sucks. Sometimes we hurt the people we love right back. The right thing to do in both situations is to talk it out and fix the hurt and make it better. Just because your family never wanted to do the work to earn your trust back doesn’t mean this guy won’t try his hardest to do right by you.” Duncan touched Fallon’s shoulder, then grabbed the filled champagne glasses and left the kitchen.

Alone with her thoughts, Fallon mulled over Duncan’s words. He was right of course. The fucker. Her mother had never cared about hurting Fallon’s feelings. She hadn’t listened to her when she’d told her that her stepdad was getting creepy. She’d pushed Fallon aside the second she’d gotten married and their relationship never really recovered.

If she could go back, Fallon would beg her mother for the apology she deserved but Carol Chism didn’t apologize. Carol Chism was never wrong so why should she have to apologize. It was her mother that taught Fallon that if you gave someone a second chance to hurt you they’d do it. And at that point, you had no one to blame but yourself.

Erik, for all his faults, always apologized. When he teased her too hard while decorating he immediately tried to make it up to her. Without her even having to explain why she was mad or ask her to. That time he broke her cookie and she slightly overreacted he took her seriously and apologized. Erik has probably apologized to her more than her own mother and that isn’t even an exaggeration.

Fallon could acknowledge all this but a part of her didn’t want to forgive him. Forgiving him meant opening herself up to this kind of pain again. She’d never been heartbroken before but she could tell you right now this shit was for the birds. Fallon didn’t know if she was ready to take that risk again.

Eventually, Fallon rejoined the party. Nicole would be the first to notice if she was hiding and unlike Duncan, she’d force her back to the party in a really embarrassing way. When she re-entered the party she noticed an immediate shift in everyone’s mood. Everyone was sort of standing around. The music playing sounded too loud without the sound of competing conversations to dull it. Even Nicole’s smile looked strained. As soon as she spotted Fallon she made a beeline to her from across the room

Still smiling she spoke through clenched teeth, “Erik is here and he’s freaking everybody out.” Nicole grabbed her hand and pulled her further into the room.

Erik stood at the center of a group of her friends. He looked so good in an all black suit. His locs were braided back and his fade looked fresh. He managed to look better than everyone around him just by standing there with his hands clasped together and a stoic blank look on his face.

Duncan, the only member of the group who actually knew Erik, was trying his hardest to engage the other man in conversation. It was like watching a puppy try to get a brick wall to play fetch. Sad, a little pathetic, and painful to watch.

“I got this, keep everyone occupied I’ll take him out into the hall so we don’t make things awkward.” Fallon squeezed Nicole’s hand and started to walk towards Erik and Duncan. Only to be pulled up short when Nicole used their grip to pull her close.

“I may have sent him into the kitchen to find you. He may have stormed back out looking pissed.”

“Wait what?” Fallon turned back to face her friend.

Nicole kissed her cheek and then practically ran away, “Love you bye!”

Armed with the knowledge that Erik had apparently been here long enough to have seen her in the kitchen, Fallon once again started her approach towards the man making everyone in the room uncomfortable. When their eyes met from across the room it felt as if her heart was pounding its way through her ribcage. There was that stare she’d been trapped in so many times this month. Those were the brown eyes she’d fallen in love with. Erik was here, for some reason, and after her conversation with Duncan, it felt a lot like fate. 

The timing was too perfect for it not to be.

When she got to the group Duncan was still trying his hardest to get a conversation going but it wasn’t happening. With a smile at her friend, she placed a hand on his back to get his attention.

Duncan stopped talking immediately, “Do you mind if I take Erik from you, we have something important we need to talk about.” Fallon asked the group as a whole but her eyes never left Erik. She hadn’t seen the man in five days. Only five days and yet she missed him like he’d been gone for years.

Duncan nodded easily and as he directed the group away from them he shot Fallon a look and mouthed, “Go get him,”

Fallon smiled softly at Erik. His face didn’t crack. He didn’t move to start the conversation and he didn’t offer a hug or hello. She realized then that she was going to have to do a lot more work than she anticipated if this whole forgiveness thing was going to happen at all.

“Come with me outside? It’s a little loud in here,” Fallon motioned to the party. Without taking his eyes off her Erik nodded once. He placed his hand on the small of her back and led the way out the front door.

In the hallway of Nicole’s apartment complex, the lights were brighter, and they made a buzzing sound that was a sharp contrast from the mix of pop and trap Nicole had on the speakers inside. The brighter lighting allowed her to get a better view of the man she’d been missing and hurting over for almost a week. He looked as tired as Fallon had felt for the last few days. All she wanted to do, besides squeezing him to make sure he’s real, was hear him call her baby. Just once.

“I didn’t think you’d actually come,” Fallon spoke into the silence between them.

Erik shrugged, “I was invited.”

Fallon snorted and shook her head, “No. No, you weren’t.” glancing down at her shiny shoes she cleared her throat and said, “I’m glad you’re here though. I haven’t been having a good time.”

Erik scoffed, making her head snap up to look at him. His face was a mask of annoyance and when he spoke his lips thinned and twisted the way they did when he was angry, “Seemed like you was havin’ a good time in that kitchen. With D,”

“Is that why you’re being a dick to me?” Fallon asked, “Why come all this way to see me if you’re just gonna hurt me all over again?” shaking her head, she turned to go back into Nicole’s apartment. She didn’t need this. Yeah, she was hurting for him but that didn’t mean she had to put up with his shitty attitude.

Erik grabbed her by the forearm to stop her progress. The feeling of him grabbing her was so familiar Fallon stopped and closed her eyes. She’d never thought she’d like manhandling. She was already so short people took as an invitation to pick her up whether she wanted it or not. But with Erik, it was different. So many things with Erik was different.

“Stop, okay? I didn’t come out here for this.” Erik turned her to face him. The mask was gone, leaving behind the man she’d fallen in love with.

“Then why did you come, Erik?” Fallon asked softly, “It’s been five days.”

Erik swallowed. The hand that was still holding her turned his grip from a grab to a caress, “I know,” he shook his head, “I’ve lived alone for most of my adult life. Yet five days without you and it feels like my balance is off. I’ve never needed another person in my life the way I need you, Fallon. And it kills me that I hurt you bad enough to make you leave in the first place.”

Fallon allowed him to guide their bodies closer. She missed his warmth, his scent. It was too easy to just fold back into his arms. She pressed her face against his chest and closed her eyes. For a moment, she just wanted this. They could talk, they would definitely talk. For right now though, all she needed was this.

When they parted ways, Fallon wouldn’t allow them to completely lose contact. She linked their fingers together and cupped his hand with both of hers. His arm found it’s way around her waist, where it belonged.

“I want you to know, that what you did was stupid. I don’t like being used or manipulated. Trust is very important to me and I can’t be with someone I don’t trust.” Fallon paused. Did she want to tell him this?

Erik squeezed her hip, “I’m so sorry baby. It won’t happen again I promise.”

Yeah. She should tell him. If anything she should tell him because he was going to be in her life. Expecting him to act in a way that won’t set her off without letting him know what sets her off wasn’t fair to him. If Fallon wanted them to have a fighting chance, and she did more than anything, then she needed to come clean.

“Let’s go inside for a bit. We’re going to need a drink for the next part of the conversation.”

When Nicole first moved into this complex the landlord accidentally gave her a copy of the key to the roof. Technically, no one was allowed up there. Not for any particular safety reason. The landlord was growing his own weed and was wary of someone taking his plants. Erik and Fallon used this to their advantage to set up an intimate picnic of champagne and Costco appetizers.

Erik took one bite out of a finger sandwich and then immediately spit it out. “The fuck is this?”

Fallon laughed at his disgusted face, “Food not cooked by me.”

Erik shook his head, “Yeah I don’t like that shit at all.”

They stuck to the crudite tray and champagne for a while. It was warmer than it should be in December but Fallon didn’t care. She was with Erik. She was with Erik and the knot in her chest since she left was gone. She waited until they settled to get into her story. 

It was still strange for her to talk about because for so long she repressed what she went through while living with her mother. Most of the time she didn’t even think about what she’d gone through. Then something would happen, say a certain African prince breaking her heart, and it was like she was 16 years old all over again.

“My dad wasn’t really around as a kid. He and my mom had me as teenagers and my dad’s the kind of person that won’t take responsibility if he thinks someone else will do it for him. He knew my mom would take care of me so he just sort of, checked out.” Fallon shrugged. 

Of all her problems she could honestly say she didn’t have daddy issues. Her dad was who he was and at first, it had hurt her but she’d learned to accept who he was. It wasn’t like he planned on changing.

“When I was five, my mom met Lawrence Chism. He had a good job, he had a car, and he had two kids of his own from a previous relationship. Obviously, it was love at first sight for them because he’d barely been in our lives for six months before they were getting married in Vegas. It wasn’t long after the wedding that Lawrence lost his job. He couldn’t afford to make payments on his car anymore so my mother took over the payments even though she couldn’t afford it.”

Fallon grabbed Erik’s hand and squeezed it tight, “Things were fine for a while. There was never any money around and I had to grow up fast because my mother was too busy taking care of her husband and his children to take care of her only child. It wasn’t until I hit puberty that things began to change.” the memory of the shift of how she was treated still stung, all these years later. 

She’d gone from tolerated to despised overnight and as a kid, she’d never been able to figure out what she did to deserve to be treated that way.

“My step-siblings were never my friends but at the time it seemed like they went out of their way to mess with me. I couldn’t go to my mom because she was either at work or getting drunk with her unemployed husband. When I did go to her she told me they were just joking and that I needed to stop being so sensitive. When I tried to defend myself I was usually the one who got the worst punishment.”

Erik’s thumb came up and wiped a tear off her cheek. She hadn’t realized she was crying.

“When I turned thirteen my stepdad started texting me. Stuff like ‘you look sexy today’. Or he’d talk about my appearance a lot. On the rare day that my step-siblings and I got along, we’d play wrestle. He’d always insert himself into the game and then they’d all gang up on me. He would always pull me into a half nelson and then rub his…” Fallon choked on the words.

Erik pulled her into his arms and held her tight, “You don’t have to keep going baby. If it’s painful I don’t want you to hurt yourself for me.”

Fallon shook her head, “No, I can do this. It was so long ago. It shouldn’t matter.”

Erik grabbed her chin with his thumb and forefinger and made her look him in the eye, “There’s no time limit on pain, Fallon. If it hurts, it hurts. And you’re allowed to be hurt.”

Fallon had to fight back happy tears at his words. They held each other closely, taking comfort in the presence of the other person. It was Fallon who pulled away. Erik didn’t allow her to get far. They maintained physical contact at all times.

“Anyway, after that, I told my mom and for the first time, I actually believed that she was on my side. I thought she’d leave my stepdad. Instead, she arranged a sit-down meeting between me and the whole family. She expected me to make my case in front of the person I was accusing and his children. When I was finally able to get the words out he denied everything of course. And his children backed him up. I was made into the girl who cried wolf and from then on it was very much them versus me.”

“My mom broke my trust that night. I had made excuses for her my whole life. I understood her stress. I understood why she couldn’t go to school plays or science fairs. She was supporting a whole family by herself, she was a teen mom. I get it. But she never protected me. I never felt like my mom was on my side, ever. As soon as I could I moved in with my Uncle and finished high school at 16.”

“When I was eighteen I was walking through Target and I ran into my mom and her husband. We hadn’t talked in two years. She was pregnant. They invited me to visit and we exchanged numbers to set it up even though the last thing I wanted to do was see them again. After that, I put them out of my mind and never looked back.”

Fallon let out a shuddering laughing, “God when I say it all out loud like that I feel like I should be way more affected by it than I am.”

“How do you feel, then?”

Fallon shrugged, “I feel…sorry for her. I feel sorry I’ll never get to meet my little brother.” She looked him in the eye and smiled softly, “I feel sorry she’ll never get to meet the most amazing man I’ve ever met in my life.”

Erik smiled at her, dimples out in full force. Cupping her face, Erik brought his lips onto hers and made the entire world disappear. Fireworks popped, everyone around the city cheered and laughed and screamed. Fallon, swept up in the smell and feel of Erik, could only barely make out the sound coming from every open window on the block.

“Happy New Year!”


	25. Chapter 25

“What the fuck are you doing up there?” Erik set down the bowl she’d asked him to get from the kitchen and raced over to where she stood on a chair. The moment he reached her he scooped her legs into his arms and cradled her to his chest.

“Well, I was trying to take down the decorations? Or do you want snowflake garlands to hang up year round?” Fallon challenged with a smile. She wrapped her arms around Erik’s neck as he carried her away from the chair and over to the couch.

“I’ll do it, you stay put right here.” He plopped her down in a seat and threw his gray blanket over her lap. Erik returned to where she’d started carefully taking the garlands off the wall. With one hard yank, he had the whole wall cleared of snowflakes.

“Well if you’re just going to yank them off,” Fallon frowned at his harsh treatment of her decorations. She’d made those snowflakes herself.

“What were you gonna save them or something?” Erik challenged. He walked over to another wall and yanked down more decorations with just as much force.

Fallon sniffed, then she sneezed, “Maybe,”

Erik eyed her over his shoulder, “Do you need the humidifier?”

The urge to roll her eyes was so strong Fallon’s head started throbbing. Or maybe that was the congestion? Or another symptom of the flu that had her shivering underneath a blanket and flannel pajamas. Either way, Erik was being unbearable and she barely had the energy to bother him for it.

“No I don’t need the humidifier,” Fallon sniffed again, “But I do need a tissue.”

Erik gave one last yank to the decorations and carried their tattered remains to the box of holiday trash sitting by the front door. If she was better Fallon would have taken them down herself and saved them to repurpose them for something else later on. In Erik’s eyes, he could always just buy her new paper. He just wanted everything down and he didn’t want her getting up to do it.

Erik returned with a box of tissues covered in snowmen. “I’m gonna head to my office to get some work done you gonna be okay out here?”

Fallon would pout but breathing through her mouth was the only thing keeping her alive at the moment. She decided to use her words instead, “Can you stay and cuddle with me? The newest season of Bake Off is on here?”

She made grabby hands at him until he walked close enough for her to get a grip on his hoodie. He wouldn’t bend down to kiss her, which was a little frustrating but she got it. Fallon hadn’t seen a mirror since nearly choking herself when she sneezed with a toothbrush in her mouth. She felt like a snot monster so who knew what she looked like. Still, when she felt awful like this she just wanted Erik nearby. And if she got him sick in the process well…you know you gotta crack some eggs to make an omelet.

“Baby, c’mon. I can’t afford to get sick. There’s a lot of work I gotta do before I go in tomorrow and…” Erik trailed off at her expression. She wasn’t pouting, if she wanted to breathe she couldn’t pout, but her eyes were all big and shiny and her nose was slightly red. Erik let out a curse.

“Okay I’ll stay for one episode and then I have to get back to work,” Erik sat on the couch next to Fallon. Before she could ask he slid his fingers under the blanket until his hands found her hips and then he lifted her to sit on his lap.

Fallon wiggled until she was comfortable. Then she wiggled some more because she could feel the slowly swelling line of his cock underneath her. Before she could really get into it Erik’s grip spasmed and tightened on her hips until she couldn’t move anymore. He pulled until her back was to his chest and locked his arms around her so that she couldn’t escape.

“I’m not having sex with you while you’re Fallon. You need to stay hydrated and conserve your energy.” to soften his rejection, Erik kissed Fallon’s temple.

“But what if I let you do all the work?” Fallon offered generously. She tried rolling her hips. Erik put a stop to that by pressing her even closer to his chest, killing her range of motion.

“No. I don’t need you getting dizzy or coughing up a lung when I’m hitting it from the back.” Erik squeezed her, “Don’t worry baby, as soon as you’re better I’ll wear that ass out.” This time, the shiver that worked its way down her spine was of anticipation.

They watched a full episode in silence, cuddled up and warm under the blanket. When Erik moved to go to his office just as he said he would, Fallon purposely made it difficult for him to get up.

“You can’t leave now we have to see what they’re going to make next week!” Fallon tugged at the grip she had on his sweatpants.

Erik kissed her forehead, “We’ll watch it later baby,” he tried to untangle her fingers from her clothing but every time he got one hand off and started on the other she’d grab something else. After doing this three times in a row Erik sighed and gripped her wrists tight in his grip.

“Keep ya’ hands to ya’self Fallon. C’mon baby I gotta go,”

“Is it anything you can’t do in the office tomorrow morning?” She challenged, still trying to get a grip on him.

“That’s not the point, it needs to get done and I have the time now so I’m going to do it.” Erik yanked her hands away when she tried grabbing for his pants, “Alright fuck this,” he transferred the grip he had on her wrists to one hand and then used the other to reach under her knees and scoop her up.

Now in his arms, Fallon found herself totally immobilized. The only thing she could move was her feet, and unless she wanted to kick until he dropped her they were pretty useless to her. Erik stared down at her with searching eyes.

“Why are you actin’ like this Fallon? What’s going on?”

Fallon couldn’t meet his eyes as she said, “I don’t want to be alone. I’ve never been sick and had someone willing to take care of me before. When you’re not around all I can do is sit here and be sick. When you are around I have someone to talk to and cuddle with when my body starts to ache.”

Erik’s expression melted, “Fallon, I love you. If you just wanted to me to stay around, you could have said that.”

Fallon’s face warmed at that, “Did you miss the part when I said I’ve never been sick with someone around to take care of me?”

“Not even your mom?”

Fallon shot him a look, “After everything I’ve told you about her do you honestly believe she took time out of her day to take care of her sick child?”

Erik shook his head in disbelief. He’d never met the woman, yet Fallon knew he did not like her. At some point between them making up and her moving in with him he decided that he was her own personal knight in shining armor. At first, she’d scoffed at the idea of Erik going out of his way to fight someone for her. Once she was hit by the flu that had been going around the office Erik proved to her that being her knight didn’t start and stop at fighting for her. 

It also included doting on her when she was sick and going craft shopping with her even though he claimed the craft store gave him hives.

“Alright, I’ll stay with you. It’s time for your medicine anyway.” Erik gently placed her on the couch and then jogged out of sight down the hallway that would take him to their shared bathroom.

As soon as he was gone, Fallon checked the clock and then reached underneath the couch to grab for the present she’d stashed there this morning when he’d left for work. Life had been sort of hectic this holiday season. After the hosting the Toy and Coat Drive at the Center for the second year in a row Erik and Fallon made the trip to Wakanda to spend time with his family. That trip lasted until after Christmas and then they’d come home for three days on for Fallon to fall under the weather before they could enjoy any time to themselves.

With all the traveling and planning going on in her life Fallon still took the time to make Erik something for their second anniversary. They’d survived a lot together this year and although she hadn’t planned on getting sick, giving him his present right before the clock struck twelve for the New Year had been on her mind for months. Erik made no mention of the upcoming anniversary or if he wanted to do anything for the day. 

But Fallon wasn’t worried. Even if he didn’t get her anything the year’s worth of love, laughter, and joy he’s given her was all she needed.

She heard the sound of Erik’s pounding footsteps returning to the living room so Fallon quickly stashed his gift under the blanket and tried to look relaxed and nonchalant. Judging by the strange look on Erik’s face when he noticed her sitting upright on the couch, she hadn’t succeeded. 

He approached the couch with the pills she needed in hand. A fever reducer, a decongestant, and then something to help her sleep because he knew she had a hard time sleeping when she couldn’t breathe out of her nose. Erik handed her a glass of water and then watched as she took them.

“Alright,” he slapped his lap and grabbed the remote, “Assume the position let’s start another episode.”

“Wait,” Fallon placed a hand on the arm holding the remote, stopping him from unpausing the show. “Before we started I wanted to give you this.”

Reaching behind her, Fallon grabbed Erik’s present and held it out to him, “It’s not much but-”

“You got me a gift? For what?”

Fallon smiled, aha! For once she’d gotten something past him. Erik was weirdly the most observant person she’d ever met in her life. Being so detail oriented has certainly helped him with his work down at the Center but it usually meant that Fallon couldn’t surprise him even when she really worked at it.

“Happy Anniversary!” Fallon took the remote out of Erik’s hands and placed the present in its place.

Erik, dumbfounded, stared at the present and then back at Fallon. His expression lasted all of a second and then he broke into a bright, dimpled smile, “Sike! Got yo ass!” Erik fell back laughing against the couch.

Fallon, more than a little confused, stared at her boyfriend as if she’d never seen him before. What the hell was going on?

“Do you really think I forgot our Anniversary, Fallon.” Erik shook his head, still laughing, “I’m the king of anniversaries”

“Says the guy who’s never had a girlfriend.” Fallon couldn’t help but shoot back.

Erik shot her a look, “That’s because I was waiting for your ass all my life. Where the fuck were you, huh?” Fallon rolled her eyes but couldn’t fight the smile off her face. She loved it when he said things like that, even when he said like an asshole.

“Since you knew it was our anniversary then where’s my gift? ‘Cause knowing and then not getting me anything is worse than forgetting altogether.”

Erik went into his pocket and pulled out a jewelry box in a familiar shade of blue. The beautiful font of the Tiffany box glinted in the light as it landed on Fallon’s lap. It was larger than a ring box, larger than something that could be earings or even a bracelet. A childish instinct to shake the box floated through her mind but her fear at breaking anything fragile inside stayed her hand.

Without any forethought, Fallon and Erik ripped into their gifts at the same time. Just as Erik got the last of the wrapping paper off his present Fallon had finally shimmied the top of the box off and was now staring at the black velvet lined insides. 

All the breath rushed out of her at once as she stared at the most beautiful necklace she’d ever seen in her life. The necklace was set with alternating diamonds that led the eyes to the brilliant pear-shaped diamond the was as wide as Fallon’s index finger. Set above it was a pair of pear-shaped earrings.

Fallon couldn’t speak. She didn’t have the words to describe the beauty inside the box on her lap. The jewels were probably worth more than the rent on her old apartment. And they were more beautiful than anything she’d ever owned before. Fallon had no idea what to do with herself as she stared down at the beautiful jewelry.

Erik was equally speechless. He reached held up the knitted sweater she’d made him in awe. The thing had taken her nearly a year to knit because it was hard to find the time between planning events for the Center and building up her own vendor list. She’d used the most expensive cashmere yarn she could find. The main yarn used was black but she’d interwoven gold yarn so that he’d get both of his favorite colors on the sweater. It was a little bigger than he actually needed but it was hard to get an exact measurement of him without tipping him off that she was going to make him something.

“Do you like it,” Fallon asked nervously. Her gift may have been labor intensive but it couldn’t compare to this diamonds Erik gave her.

Erik took one look at her face and must have known what was going on inside her head because he immediately whipped off his hoodie and put the sweater on. Fallon laughed at the seriousness of his expression as he made the switch.

“You don’t have to-”

“Nah it’s perfect.” Erik shushed her. Once it was on it looked so good Fallon couldn’t help but grin at her boyfriend.

He helped her put on the necklace and then watched as she put on the earrings too. At her insistence, they took a few dozen pictures of their gifts on one another and together. There’s a kind of blurry photo of him smothering her in kisses that Fallon’s eyes tear up over when she sees it. She definitely looked sick but the diamonds were what caught your eye and the photo was just blurry enough to to make her red nose look festive. Erik’s sweater came through pretty clearly but his face was a blur. 

Despite its imperfections, or maybe because of them, it was Fallon’s favorite photo of them ever.

“I got one more gift for you though,” Erik said when Fallon began to take off her jewelry and return them to the box. She wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of her life in those earrings and that necklace but she could fall asleep at any second. The last thing she wanted was to risk losing one of her earrings on the couch or something.

Erik reached into his pocket and then slid to the floor in front of her on one knee. Fallon took one look at him and scowled, “Get out,”

Erik’s eyebrows shot up, “Uh, what?”

Fallon crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, “You will not propose to me while I have the flu! What will I tell our kids when I tell them about how we got married?”

Erik reached for her hand, “Baby you’re beautiful-”

“Oh save it,” Fallon snapped, “I refuse to have you propose to me when I have the flu. You can propose to me when I get better.”

Erik rolled his eyes and shot her an impressed look, “Are you forreal right now.”

“As a heart attack. You already tarnished my dreams of being proposed to on Christmas. I refuse to allow you to propose to me when I have the flu.” She shrugged, “And if you try to propose anyway I’ll just say no and go back to enjoying my show.”

Erik studied the stubborn set to Fallon’s jaw for a beat, then he chuckled and shook his head. He rose off of the floor to sit on the couch. All the while he kept looking at Fallon with this expression of disbelief. He chuckled to himself as he returned the ring box back to his pocket. Once he was settled on the couch, Fallon crawled into his lap and grabbed the remote. She restarted the Bake Off episode and snuggle closer to Erik until he put his arms around her waist to stop her from wiggling.

“I’m not having sex with you while you’re sick Fallon,” Erik deadpanned. His eyes never left the screen.

Fallon scoffed, “So you’ll propose to me while I’m sick but you won’t have sex with me?”

Erik was silent for a beat. When Fallon glanced back to gauge his reaction he appeared deep in thought. A soft noise that sounded like, “Huh,” left his mouth but Fallon couldn’t be sure that’s what he said. When they’re eyes met, there was a heat in them that immediately made goosebumps rise on her skin. That look was all she needed before she launched off Erik’s lap and booked it to their bedroom.

“Bring the box baby, I want to see you with nothing but your jewelry on.”


End file.
